Imagine typing a question into a search engine and getting an in-depth, conversational answer with links to resources. No need to click through multiple websites to find an answer; it's all laid out for you.
This is the reality since Monday when ChatGPT Search went live for all users with an OpenAI account.
Open AI first presented Search in late October as a way to quickly get answers to time-sensitive questions, but limited the feature to paying users at the time. Since its initial release, OpenAI has made Search “better” meaning it's “faster” and open to everyone, said Kevin Weil, product lead at OpenAI. in a video announcement.
Related: Google's biggest bet is bringing AI to Search, says CIO
The move puts ChatGPT in direct competition with Google as the place people go for timely answers to questions – but how well does it fare? I tried ChatGPT Search to find out.
How to use ChatGPT search
First, I logged into the online version of ChatGPT, chatgpt.com.
Home screen for ChatGPT.
There are two ways to search. The first is to type a timed question or search in the ChatGPT Message box, which will prompt the AI chatbot to automatically search the web.
When I typed in “What's happening in NYC this weekend,” ChatGPT knew to ask for answers instead of coming up with one on its own.
In seconds, he searched through five pages and came up with a conversational answer to what was happening in town this weekend.
What's happening in NYC this weekend? Part of ChatGPT's response.
Another way to access ChatGPT Search is to type a query and click the globe icon that stands for “Search the Web.”
I typed “How many users does ChatGPT have as of December 2024?” and click the globe before pressing enter. Almost immediately an answer appeared that linked to multiple sources.
According to the data reporting page Sage RequestChatGPT has 300 million weekly active users and about 123.5 million daily active users. I can hover over the source to get a glimpse of the website the stats came from, and I can click the source to be taken directly there.
Hover over the resource.
How does ChatGPT Search compare to Google?
I was pleasantly surprised by how timely the responses to ChatGPT Search were and how quickly the results were populated. Everything seemed designed to keep users talking to the AI chatbot for longer periods of time, with little need to click through to other pages.
Related: Would you pay $200 for ChatGPT? OpenAI's new reasoning model comes at a high price.
However, one feature that ChatGPT Search lacks is the ability to cite multiple sources for a piece of information. For example, sites other than Demand Sage had the statistic that OpenAI has 300 million weekly active users, but OpenAI chose Demand Sage over the others. I would like more transparency in how the chatbot selects sites, and perhaps more than one site referred to for a piece of information.
It seems like ChatGPT is becoming more like Google and vice versa. Google now shows experimental AI overviewsimitating ChatGPT's written responses, while ChatGPT is searching the web for responses. Google has more links and references to resources, but ChatGPT links to resources more clearly.
Google AI Briefings.
Will ChatGPT replace Google?
Not yet. To me, the variety of resources Google offers is more valuable than ChatGPT's current offerings—it's very limited in its resources, for now. As ChatGPT adds more resources and grows in functionality, however, it may become a stronger competitor to Google.