The inevitable future of search engine has arrived. It was long predicted, discussed, and expected—and now it’s here.
The AI landscape, once stagnant and uninspiring, experienced a monumental shift when OpenAI launched ChatGPT. This innovation ignited fierce competition across the tech world. It didn’t take long before companies of all sizes began racing to establish their dominance in the AI space.
Yet, one company found itself facing a future it had never anticipated.
It was Google, and it was a "code red".
Known for being the world’s largest search engine, Google quickly realized the profound impact that a Large Language Model (LLM)-powered chatbot could have on human-computer interaction. The emergence of generative AI with natural language processing capabilities had the potential to revolutionize how people search for information online.
Reacting swiftly, Google developed its own chatbot, originally called Bard, which was later rebranded as Gemini. The AI was seamlessly integrated into nearly all of Google’s core products to stay competitive.
Then, the moment arrived, and OpenAI released ChatGPT Search, its own version of an AI-driven search engine, marking a new chapter in the evolution of how users interact with the internet.
This time, the search engine from OpenAI is made available to all ChatGPT users, wherever they are.
ChatGPT search is starting to roll out to all Free users today.
Search the web in a faster, better way—available globally on https://t.co/nYW5KO1aIg and our mobile and desktop apps for all logged-in users. pic.twitter.com/yf6GJGAm8b— OpenAI (@OpenAI) December 16, 2024
As a present. announced during the eighth day of its '12 Days of OpenAI,' ChatGPT is finally getting its most-wanted feature.
"ChatGPT will choose to search the web based on what you ask, or you can manually choose to search by clicking the web search icon."
Previously, the ChatGPT’s search engine was originally rolled out to paid subscribers. This time, free-tier users can finally get their hands on the tool.
The only requirement is that, they have to have an account and be logged in.
One of the unique things ChatGPT Search provides that traditional search engines cannot, is displaying accompanying images, ratings, and hours.
Like when users look for particular location, like a restaurant or a local attraction, for example, ChatGPT Search can display a list of results, as well as more information about the spot, and a map with directions from directly within the app.
Another example is when users look for certain kinds of websites, such as "hotel booking websites."
Instead of generating a response right away, ChatGPT Search will surface links to websites before taking the time to provide more information about each option.
Additionally, ChatGPT can also automatically provide up-to-date information from the web when using Advanced Voice Mode, though that’s only available to paid users.
We’re also adding maps to ChatGPT in our mobile apps, so you can search for and chat about local restaurants and businesses with up-to-date information. pic.twitter.com/bQb4zilq6p
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) December 16, 2024
By bringing ChatGPT Search to all users, OpenAI is intensifying the competition with Google's dominance.
Previously, AI chatbots like ChatGPT were limited by time cutoffs, meaning their answers were not always up-to-date.
But now, with ChatGPT able to pull live information from across the web, presenting search results in a format similar to Google and Google Maps, but without the ads, OpenAI is nevertheless, a formidable opponent to Google Search.
Its main advantage here is that, OpenAI has integrated search directly into ChatGPT.
This is unlike initiatives from Google and Microsoft, which have both combined AI-generated answers with live web results.