On July 25th, OpenAI announced SearchGPT. In plain English, it’s a search engine. It combines LLM AI with web pages to create answers to searches. The answers include links to the source pages. Additional results appear in a sidebar.
OpenAI is testing this prototype and may add the best features to ChatGPT.
OpenAI wants to offer a user-friendly search experience that combines LLMs and search without relying on advertising.
OpenAI says websites (also called “publishers”) will be able to manage their appearance in SearchGPT. No details yet, but I assume websites may be able opt out. (BTW, you may have opted out of ChatGPT AI, but SearchGPT is different so your webpage may show up in SearchGPT.)
OpenAI says SearchGPT will be available to only 10,000 people. You can join the SearchGPT Waitlist at https://chatgpt.com/search. (I signed up immediately, but it hasn’t been added to my paid account yet.)
SearchGPT Isn’t Google Search
Many are saying that OpenAI will compete with Google and that SearchGPT will be a “Google killer.”
- Google isn’t just a search engine; it’s the main global platform with a 90% world market share in advertisers and publishers. Google produces $300B per year. Nobody can compete against something that big.
- The future of LLM AI isn’t to be another Google, and Google’s own future won’t be Google. These companies are looking to build new platforms and services.
- If anything, SearchGPT competes with the Perplexity.ai search (which I strongly recommend over Google). Perplexity works. It’s not a prototype.
What to Do
For now, watch to see what happens. SearchGPT is a prototype in testing. OpenAI may (note the “may”) roll features into future versions of ChatGPT-4o. Or they may shut the whole thing down altogether.
Watch Perplexity.ai and Google as well. These are evolving.
