Goodbye Google! I spent the weekend searching for ChatGPT and have no intention of going back.

OpenAI introduced its search system, SearchGPT inside ChatGPT artificial intelligence platform last week. The company has since released a Chrome plugin that makes it your default search engineso I spent the entire weekend using only ChatGPT to search.

Over the past few months, I swapped between Perplexitywhich works similar to ChatGPT search, and Google as my default. I usually go back to Google simply because it makes it easier to find specific websites rather than just information. It wasn’t a problem ChatGPTand I may have gone to Google once or twice to check ChatGPT’s answer.

What I found compared to using Google with AI reviews or confusion is that ChatGPT was cleaner, gave me the information I needed, and had more obvious sources for that data. It also explained why it suggests a specific link in more detail than any other search engine I’ve tried.

Spend your weekend with SearchGPT

ChatGPT

(Image credit: OpenAI/Future)

I was originally going to use search only as a tool in ChatGPT, but leave Google as the default; in the end, he usually gives me the link or information I need. However, I decided to try switching and making ChatGPT the default in Chromium to see if it can satisfy the various requirements I have for my search.

My first reaction was that this was a huge improvement over previous AI search experiments I’d tried, simply because of the way the information was presented. This may have been due to my familiarity with the ChatGPT user interface. The big advantage was that I could ask the question in natural language, as well as specify how I would like it presented, and the answer would be exactly what I was hoping for – with accurate citations, links, and data.

For example, I could ask it how many moons there are in the solar system and display it by size, and that’s exactly what ChatGPT will give me. I got a similar result from Perplexity, but the interface is more cluttered and it took longer. Google offered a NASA link that had some information about the satellites, but no table. This did not trigger AI reviews.

I found that searching through ChatGPT felt more like the original Google, where the data you needed was right there, without all the extra features and bells and whistles of a modern search engine. Analogy to a clean Windows installation without bloatware.

What features stood out?

ChatGPT

(Image credit: OpenAI/Future)

One thing that concerned me about switching straight to ChatGPT as my default search engine in Chrome was how well it would handle simple website queries. While I use the omnibox for searching, I also use it for web browsing, and sometimes this involves typing in the name of a website and trusting that Google will present that to me as the first result, especially if I’m not sure of the exact URL.

Perplexity combats this issue because of the way it presents website URLs in a box on the side or top of the results window. However, I was pleasantly surprised by ChatGPT as it offered the URL right at the top as a clickable link before presenting you with its analysis.

What was especially interesting was that it gave you a breakdown of what was available on the side, with specific in-text links to each item. For example, it talked about our streaming coverage and offered a link to the streaming page.

It also has access to real-time data for common things like weather, news, sports and stocks. You may be wondering when Arsenal is playing near me next, whether I will need to take an umbrella and how to get there from my location. He checked Premier League timetables, Met Office forecast and UK travel data to give me a complete itinerary from one search.

Final Thoughts

ChatGPT

(Image credit: OpenAI/Future)

I figured I’d just leave it for the weekend and then go back to Google like I did when I switched to Perplexity. I also assumed that I would regularly switch to Google or manually go to Google.com for specific queries that ChatGPT couldn’t handle.

My assumption turned out to be wrong. Not only did I keep it as my default search engine in Chrome, but I was also annoyed that I couldn’t make it my default search engine in Chrome. Safari or on my iPhone.

ChatGPT was launched 2 years ago as an experiment to demonstrate the natural language capabilities of the large GPT-3 language model. It has now firmly established its position as one of the most powerful productivity platforms on the market, and this position will only grow.