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Usually I do a search, looking for specific facts, like what is the pricing for X? On Google you get to click through links and read a lot of filter, ads, promotions, etc. Why not just get the answer?

A huge percentage of searches are for existing websites, like "facebook." This might not be a big challenge if you just wanted to go to facebook.

This morning I saw a retweet from a Google/former Deepmind engineer, of someone who said they completely switched from Google to using perplexity.ai. I checked it out again (I've used perplexity before.)

I did a test search for interest rates, and perplexity returned the correct interest rate for the day along with the trading range. I think Google is really in trouble. I'd say the golden goose is in the process of being slaughtered.

None of this is a surprise. Google's voice assistant has been really good for years. Nothing came close to it. Siri is close to useless. Maybe Google can pivot and they'll be fine. I don't know what the economics look like.



As a random experiment I asked both platforms "What is the current average mortgage rate?"

https://www.perplexity.ai/?s=u&uuid=6f7fe592-c11f-4df9-a2bf-...

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+current+average+...

Google's results were far more informative and usable.

I then tried something I thought would be more up Perplexity's alley: "Who was the first US president with a last name starting with R?"

https://www.perplexity.ai/?s=u&uuid=8d60cf3f-eab5-4af6-a616-...

Their answer is not correct. Google didn't even try to answer my question directly, but it did send me to a government website with a chronological list of presidents where I was able to quickly verify that the answer was Teddy Roosevelt.


> The first US president with a last name starting with "R" was John Quincy Adams, whose middle name started with "R". If you're looking for a president whose last name starts with "R", then the first would be James A. Garfield.

ChatGPT is amazing, until it isn't.


I don't know how anyone could trust anything it tells you when it replies with facts like this. If someone honestly said this in person, would people really continue to think this person to be a credible person?


There's a reason Steve Jobs demoed the iPhone with hardcoded reception bars showing a full-strength AT&T signal.

The real iPhone 1 was 2G only, constantly dropped calls and had no copy/paste.

That a large chunk of HN audience is sitting agape watching similarly manicured demos is surprising to say the least.




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