Perplexity: Next-Generation Search Engine with Integrated AI
January 23, 2024
Recently, Perplexity secured Series B funding from Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and others, generating considerable community discussion. Perplexity, unlike Quora's Poe, allows users to leverage various models provided by commercial entities behind the scenes.
Perplexity positions itself as an AI search engine, rivaling Google rather than ChatGPT. Despite being in Series B, we are optimistic about Perplexity's future because, from a user's perspective, it has genuinely diverted our searches from Google.
Although ChatGPT now integrates with Bing, or Microsoft transformed Bing Chat into Copilot, Perplexity provides a better search experience than Microsoft's Copilot and doesn't suffer from the slow speed issues of the current GPT-4.
One of the reasons Perplexity is promising is its integration with AI and its ad-free nature. Kagi, another ad-free search engine, is already in use by many. Advertising and search engines are fundamentally at odds. However, Google, the largest search engine globally, is also one of the world's largest advertising companies.
While Google excels at advertising, sometimes ads appear irrelevant to user needs, violating the core mission written in Google's manifesto (organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and beneficial). In contrast, when searching with Perplexity, there are no ads, and responses or pages indexed by Perplexity prioritize relevance and helpfulness. This is why we believe in Perplexity.
TikTok primarily earns through e-commerce, not primarily through ads. Although there are ads, they are not the primary revenue source. TikTok continuously promotes content that engages users to keep them on the platform, benefiting both creators and the platform.
However, Meta's primary revenue comes from advertising, causing dissatisfaction on both sides. On Facebook and Instagram, we've seen many creators complain about low reach without advertising, while users complain that these platforms are saturated with ads. Meta's focus on advertising, the primary revenue source, has caused frustration on both ends.
Certainly, many users accept ads (provided the product or service is free), so we don't think Perplexity will completely take over Google's market. Additionally, recent community discussions suggest that Bard might introduce a paid version, which is exciting. If it follows a similar path to Perplexity, relying on subscriptions rather than ads, combined with Google's inherent advantage in search and its Gemini project, it could establish another business model beyond ads.
These viewpoints represent some thoughts as users. We recommend trying Perplexity for yourself. We can revisit this article in a year to see if Perplexity has indeed improved over time and if Google responds to the market by introducing a paid product in AI+search.
Finally, when using Perplexity, we've noticed content from ExplainThis being indexed. Thanks to these search engines for acknowledging our content 😂