ChatGPT Launches Its Own Search Engine and Starts a War with Google

ChatGPT has launched its own search engine, breaking into a market that has been dominated by Google for decades, despite numerous attempts by competitors.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced last week ‘ChatGPT Search’. This version of the world’s most popular chatbot will allow users to obtain the latest information available on the internet.

Many search results look like those you might find in a standard Google search. For example, searching for ‘Chinese food’ brings up a list of reviews of nearby restaurants, while searching for vacation tips for, say, Thailand produces travel blogs and hotel lists. Additionally, a significant focus is on the tool’s ability to provide real-time information, just like a search engine, for queries that users want to know immediately and that can change in an instant – sports scores, stock prices, and weather.

The tool then summarizes that information and cites its sources. To prepare for the launch, OpenAI secured several contracts with media companies such as The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and Vox to include their content in the search results.

During a public Q&A session on Reddit for the launch of ChatGPT Search, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hailed it as an improvement over current search formats.

– For many queries, I find it a faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for. I think we will see this especially for queries that require more complex research. I also look forward to a future where a search query can dynamically display a customized webpage as a response – said Altman.

An OpenAI spokesperson stated that ChatGPT Search aims to simplify the process of searching for information online by utilizing ChatGPT’s natural language processing skills and providing users access to reputable sources. No one from Google has responded yet.

ChatGPT Search uses other search engines in the background to power its search results. One of them is Bing, the search engine run by Microsoft, which is one of OpenAI’s largest investors, said OpenAI’s Vice President of Engineering Srinivas Narayanan in a comment during the Q&A session on Reddit. OpenAI has not disclosed the names of other search engines it is working with. An OpenAI spokesperson stated that ChatGPT Search will use a mix of search technologies to deliver results.

Hard to Outshine Google

It is worth noting that ChatGPT is not the only company trying to compete with Google with an AI-powered search engine. The startup Perplexity, backed by Jeff Bezos, has also been introduced as an AI search engine. Google is also using its large language model Gemini for its own search results, to summarize content that would typically appear within the links it lists as search results.

ChatGPT has made very marginal progress in reducing Google’s market share of about 91 percent in the search engine market. A survey of 1300 people conducted in September by the investment firm Evercore found that eight percent of respondents chose ChatGPT over Google as their search engine, an increase from one percent in June.

Although progress may be slow, and one survey does not reflect the overall market trends shaping Google’s $175 billion search advertising business, it is a significant development given Google’s dominance. Google is such an unshakeable force that even Microsoft’s attempt last February to use ChatGPT to improve Bing’s search results, which was then considered a key differentiating factor, resulted in an increase in market share of less than one percentage point. It now seems that Microsoft and OpenAI have changed their strategy, using Bing to power ChatGPT, rather than the other way around.

Despite these small changes, Google still overshadows its competitors. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, does not disclose exact figures for its search queries, but they are measured in the billions monthly. Even without specific numbers, they are significantly higher than the number of users of ChatGPT and Perplexity. In August, ChatGPT stated that it has 200 million users weekly, or about 800 million monthly. Although Perplexity had 10 million active users monthly since February, according to the New York Times, a number that is quite impressive for a startup, but weak compared to Google’s status, reported Fortune.

Nevertheless, there is a belief in Silicon Valley that AI will change the nature of search engines. However, how exactly this will happen remains to be seen, even by some of the main players in artificial intelligence like ChatGPT. When a Reddit user asked OpenAI’s head of product Kevin Weil about the differences between AI-powered search and the old-school version, he said it is still early.

– The product just launched today, so there is still a lot to understand about where search will be similar and where it will differ in the world of artificial intelligence. I would love all the feedback you have – Weil wrote on Reddit.