Latest news with #AIsearch
Fast Company
a day ago
- Fast Company
Perplexity's new AI features are a game changer. Here's how to make the most of them
Perplexity has become my primary tool for search. I rely on it for concise summaries of complex topics. I like the way it synthesizes information and provides reliable citations for me to explore further. I prefer Perplexity's well-organized responses to Google's laundry list of links, though I still use Google to find specific sites & addresses and for other 'micro-searches.' Perplexity's not perfect. I've rarely seen it hallucinate, but it can pick dubious sources or misinterpret your question. As with any tool that uses AI, the wording of your query impacts your result. Write detailed queries and specify preferred sources when you can. Double-check critical data or facts. Google's new AI Mode is a strong new competitor, and ChatGPT, Claude and others now offer AI-powered search, but I still rely on Perplexity for reasons detailed below. This post updates my previous post with new features, examples, and tips. My favorite new features Labs. Create slides, reports, dashboards, and Web apps by writing a detailed query and specifying the format of the results you want. Check out the Project Gallery for 20 examples. Voice Mode. I ask historical questions about books, curiosities about nature and science, and things I should already know about movies & music. The transcript shows up afterwards. Templates for Spaces. A large new collection of templates makes it easier to get started with custom instructions for various kinds of research, for sales/marketing, education, finance, or other subjects. Transcription. Upload & transcribe files up to 25mb. Ask for insights & ideas. Topical landing pages for finance, travel, shopping, and academics provide useful examples and new practical ways to use Perplexity. When to use Perplexity Get up to speed on a topic: Need to research North Korea-China relations? Ask Perplexity for a summary and sources. See the result. Research hyper-specific information: Ask for a list of organizations that crowdsource info about natural disasters. See the result. Explore personal curiosities: I was curious about Mozart's development as a violinist, so I asked for key dates and details. See the result. The best things about Perplexity Sources. Perplexity provides links to its sources, so you can follow-up on anything you want to learn more about. Tip: specify sources to prioritize. Summaries. Instead of long articles or lists of links, get straight-to-the-point answers that save time. Tip: specify when you want a summary table. Follow-ups. Ask follow-up questions to dive deeper into a topic, just like a conversation. For visual topics, Perplexity can surface relevant images and videos. Tip: customize your own follow-up query if defaults aren't relevant. Deep Research. Get fuller results for queries where you need more info. Tip: Use Claude or ChatGPT to help you draft clearer, more thorough search prompts. Spaces. Group related searches into collections so they're easy to return to later. I created one for Atlanta before a trip. You can keep a collection private, invite others to edit it, or share a public link. Tip: create a team space. Pages. Share search results by creating public pages you can customize. Watch a 1-minute video demo. Examples: Beginners Guide to Drumming, a Barcelona itinerary, and forest hotels in Sweden. Labs. Use Perplexity More Effectively You can use Perplexity on the Web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. Start with Perplexity's own introductory guide, check the how it works FAQ, then use the Get Started template to use Perplexity itself to learn more. Write detailed queries Include two or more sentences specifying what you're looking for and why. Your result will be better than if you just use keywords. Refine your settings Specify one or more preferred source types: Web, academic sources, social (i.e. Reddit), or financial (SEC filings). Pick your model. Advanced users can specify the AI flavor Perplexity uses. I'd recommend maintaining Perplexity's default or the o3 option for research that requires complex reasoning. You can also use Grok, Gemini or Claude. Specify domains to search. Mention specific domains or kinds of sites you're interested in for more targeted results. Use a domain limiter to narrow your search to a particular site or domain type, e.g. 'domain:.gov' to focus only on government sites. Or just use natural language to limit Perplexity to certain kinds of sites, as in this example scouring CUNY sites for AI policies. Personalize your account. Add a brief summary of your interests, focus areas, and information preferences in your profile to customize the way Perplexity provides you with answers. Quick searches are fine when you're just looking for a simple fact, like when was CUNY founded. Pro searches are best for more intricate, multi-part queries. On the free plan you get 3 pro searches a day. Examples: Perplexity in action Check public opinion: 'Is there a Pew survey about discovering news through social media platforms?' See the result. Explore historical archives: 'List literacy and education programs in high-growth African countries in the last decade.' See the result. Pricing Free for unlimited quick searches, 3 pro searches and 3 file uploads per day. $20/month for unlimited file and image uploads for analysis; access to Labs; and 10x as many citations. See the 2025 feature comparison. Privacy To protect your privacy when using Perplexity, capitalize on the following: Turn 'data retention' off in your settings. (Screenshot). Turn on the Incognito setting if you're signed in to anonymize a search. Search in an incognito browser tab without logging into Perplexity. Bonus features The free Chrome Extension lets you summon a Perplexity search from any page. The 'summarize' button hasn't always worked for me. The Perplexity Encyclopedia has a collection of tool comparisons An experimental beta Tasks feature lets you schedule customized searches Listen to an AI audio chat about Perplexity I generated w/ NotebookLM. Caveats Accuracy and confabulation: While Perplexity uses retrieval augmented generation to reduce errors, it's not flawless. Check the sources it references. Document analysis limitations: The file size limit for uploads is 25MB. Covert larger files to text or use Adobe's free compressor or SmallPDF. Deep Research, though fast, is not nearly as thorough as what is provided by ChatGPT's Deep Research or Gemini's. Alternatives to Perplexity Google AI Mode: Google's much-improved new AI search option provides summary responses like Perplexity. Here's an example of a comparison table it created for me and its take on 10 Perplexity features. Try it in labs. Free. Consensus: Superb for academic queries. Search 200 million peer-reviewed research papers and get a summary and links to publications. Useful for scientific or other research questions, e.g. active vs. passive learning or how cash transfers impact poverty. Pricing: Free for unlimited searches and limited premium use; $9/month billed annually for full AI capabilities. ChatGPT Web Search. Turn on the 'Search the Web' option under the tools menu when using ChatGPT to enable Web searching. Search chats include inline links with sources. For example, here's a ChatGPT Web search query about Perplexity vs. other AI search tools. It includes a helpful ChatGPT-generated chart. As differentiators I like Perplexity's summaries, suggested follow-up queries, Labs, and the handy Voice Mode for quick questions.
Hospitality Net
02-06-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Food for Thought: Is Traditional Search Dead?
A recent post on LinkedIn declared the end of the search engines as we know them. the list even declared 'R.I.P. Search.' This is in tune with an avalanche of recent headlines arguing that traditional search is dead due to the rise of AI Search via the generative AI platforms ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc. Some experts herald the end of Google's monopoly on search and claim that traditional search marketing is becoming obsolete. Let's not get carried away. The rumors about the inevitable end of the 'traditional' search engines like Google at the hands of AI Search are highly exaggerated. According to latest data by SEMrush, people interact with search engines 34 TIMES more often than with AI search. During the reported period of April 2024-March 2025, the global search engines received 1,863 billion visits (-0.5% YoY), while the global AI Search chatbots 55.2 billion +(81% YoY). In other words, AI Search was in the rise over the past year, but still received 34 times less visits than traditional search engines. There is an additional wrinkle to the story: the data for traditional search engines does not include the queries on Google, Bing, etc. that were answered by AI, which blurs the boundaries between traditional search and AI. For example, Google uses its Gemini AI to provide answers in its Answer Box in its SERPs. Today, nearly 60% of Google searches end up as zero-click queries i.e. people find enough information in the Gemini AI-powered Answer Box and do not need to click on any of the organic or sponsored links. Bing uses a combination of ChatGPT and its proprietary Prometheus AI and Copilot AI in its Answer Box to boosts its conversational search capabilities, provide a more interactive user experience and up-to-date and context-rich answers, especially for current events and trends. So, should hoteliers abandon their traditional search marketing initiatives? Definitely not! Search marketing on Google and all of its formats: Google Ads (GA), Google Hotel Ads (GHA), organic listings (SEO) consistently contributes to over 50% of hotel website bookings. In the same time, hoteliers should not ignore the rising AI Search. The most immediate priority is to optimize the property for AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization), the AI version of SEO. In the AI world, stuffing your website content with SEO keyword terms and aiming to rank for keywords no longer applies. In other words, your website is no longer the primary source of influence. The era of earning recognition has arrived. How do you achieve that? Invest in content marketing with the goal to be cited in places of relevance. SEO company VertoDigital's audits show that only 25% of AI answers are pulled from website content, in this case hotel website content. The rest comes from citations about the hotel in social media, online publications, YouTube, travel-related sites and blogs, customer reviews, etc.
Gizmodo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Apple's Stock Price Falls After Exec Says It Is Considering Injecting Safari With AI
On Wednesday, Apple's senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, said that the company is 'actively looking at' bringing AI search options to its Safari web browser. Cue also said he believes that AI search engines will eventually replace standard search engines like Google. Cue's comments came as he testified in the remedies phase of Google's antitrust trial in Washington. The Apple executive also shared that the number of Google searches made on Safari decreased for the first time ever this year. He attributed the change to the rise of AI search engines. 'That has never happened in 22 years,' he emphasized. (Safari was released in early 2003.) While Cue says that AI search technology isn't ready to be rolled out on Safari ('To date, they're just not good enough'), he did say that the company has already had conversations with OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic. Last August, Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to some of its products, but Cue says he wanted to 'make sure we have the capability to switch if we have to,' in case another company distinguishes itself as a leader in AI search. Share prices of both Alphabet and Apple fell—Alphabet's by around 8% and Apple's by around 2%—after Bloomberg reported on Cue's testimony. Executives from a range of tech companies—including Yahoo, Microsoft, and OpenAI—are expected to testify during the remedies phase of this trial, which kicked off last month. Apple's testimony is particularly relevant to Google's fate because the search company pays Apple around $20 billion a year to be the default search engine on Safari. Under this agreement with Google, Apple receives a portion of Google's ad revenue from searches on Safari. During his testimony on Wednesday, Cue said he's 'lost a lot of sleep' over the idea of losing the revenue share. Google is currently the defendant in two separate antitrust suits filed by the Department of Justice. Today's testimony was part of the trial that emerged from the Justice Department's 2020 lawsuit against Google. That suit alleges that Google illegally maintained a monopoly on search and search advertising markets. A central argument in the DOJ's case was that the exclusivity agreements Google struck with certain platform providers (like Apple) to become the default browser on their tools were illegally monopolistic. Last August, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court of the District of Washington, DC, ruled against Google in the trial. While Google has said it plans to appeal the verdict, that action will have to wait until the remedies phase of the trial is complete. Separately, a 2023 suit filed by the DOJ against Google argues that the search giant illegally monopolized the digital ad tech market. Last month, Google was found guilty of two of the three charges brought against it. Google also plans to appeal this ruling.
