Whether it’s the relentless onslaught of ads or the dozens of inauthentic links occupying the top spot, using Google Search has never felt more unrewarding than in 2024. So it’s perhaps not surprising that entire AI startups like Perplexity have sprung up to threaten Google’s search business. Shortly after Google was forced to respond with its controversial AI Overviews feature, OpenAI also threw its hat into the arena with ChatGPT Search. The latter is finally rolling out to the general public, so I took it for a spin to find out if ChatGPT could potentially supplant Google for my search needs.
What is ChatGPT Search?
ChatGPT Search combines the chatbot’s excellent natural language understanding with a search engine for up-to-date information. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat), you will feel right at home – the way they work is extremely similar, inline citations and everything. While OpenAI hasn’t revealed how it ranks online sources, the company’s VP of Engineering confirmed on Reddit that the feature relies on Bing to some extent.