Goodbye Google! I Have a New Way of Thinking About Search

Listen to this post

I’m a web developer. What does that mean? It means a big part of my day is spent searching online for information. I do it so much that i developed some specific techniques to get the most out of my search results. I used to consider myself a “Professional Googler”… Used to…

Whether it’s troubleshooting code, researching new frameworks, or finding the best tool for a task, search engines (specifically Google) have always been a go-to resource for me. Scrolling through article after article, blog after blog, trying to piece together the information I needed. But after using AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude for coding questions, I noticed I was using google less.

AI is great and all, but with hallucinations and its inability to use current up-to-date data, I still found myself regularly on google scrolling through a heap of blog posts from large corporate websites with teams dedicated to marketing and SEO. What I really needed was something that could research broader topics and provide me with smart, concise results.

Enter Perplexity AI.

Why Perplexity Is Gaining Traction With Me

This morning I thought I would test it out by comparing Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s policies (I’m not sure if its the same in the US but in Australia we only get the ‘gossipy’ side of that news). Perplexity performed real-time searches, pulling together information from various sources and giving me a detailed comparison of their stances – all in one query. It’s not just answering my question; it’s doing the research for me.

This shift from searching to researching is changing how I approach search. Rather than typing in generic search terms and sifting through results, I now write out research tasks, and Perplexity handles the rest. It’s definitely faster and more to the point. I will have to keep going before I determine its accuracy yet, but so far so good.

Here’s where I Think Google Search Is In Trouble

While Perplexity and other smaller startups are pushing the boundaries of what search can be, The big players like Google and Bing and (Cough LOL) Yahoo are falling behind.

Google has (half) launched Search Generative Experience (SGE) which seems like a reasonable addition. However, it’s not available for my account, and I’m unsure of its overall effectiveness. The reason I am skeptical is because of Google’s search engine business model. It’s funded by advertisers. Advertisers pay per ad impression and click. So in theory, Google has no incentive to move you on from their service by providing thorough and concise answers to your questions. It will hurt their bottom line. Their model needs a paid user to survive but good luck getting users to start paying for something they have come to expect for free. This is an opportunity for these smaller startups to create a new model by registering a user account in order to use their search engine. The irony is, I signed up for Perplexity with my Google account.

Search Engines vs. Research Engines

Let’s recap – There is currently a shift in how search engines work and what users are going to expect from them, with platforms like Perplexity, You.com, and Komo leading the way. These aren’t just search engines, I would consider them “Research Engines” (and I’m going to coin that phrase right now thank you very much), designed to handle more complex queries and provide intelligent, multi-step answers. Perplexity, for instance, doesn’t just give you a list of links; it synthesizes data and compares sources.

In contrast, tools like Bing’s Copilot feel like they’re tacking AI onto their existing platforms without offering anything truly groundbreaking. Their AI capabilities still feel limited to basic summaries, rather than the deep, contextual analysis that Research Engines like Perplexity provide.

How I Use Each Tool

Of course, I still use different tools for different purposes. Google Search is fine for when I’m looking for a company website. I search ‘Australia post’ and click on the AusPost website. But that’s about all its good for.

ChatGPT and Claude come in when I’m in the creative process, whether I’m troubleshooting code or organizing my thoughts on a topic to prepare for a blog post. They’re perfect for helping me work through ideas that I already have a base knowledge of, but they’re not built for deeper research.

When I need to dig into something more complex, or when I need comparisons and real-time data, Perplexity is quickly becoming the tool I go to. It’s been so useful that it’s now on the homepage of my phone, and it may even replace my Google Chrome app in coveted Dock on my android home screen.

The Future of Search

It’s a very interesting time where smaller startups have an edge on being able to ship software and features quicker than the big boys of the search world. I’m really curious to see how this plays out over the coming years. Will “Google” keep its place in our vernacular or will we start being “Perplexed”?