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I, personally, use chatGPT for search more than I do Google these days. It, more often than not, gives me more exact results based on what I'm looking for and i

I, personally, use chatGPT for search more than I do Google these days. It, more often than not, gives me more exact results based on what I'm looking for and it produces links I can visit to get more information. I think this is where their competitive advantage lies if they can figure out how to monetize that.

aprilthird2021 10mo ago
I'm genuinely curious. Why do you do this instead of Google Searches which also have an AI Overview / answer at the top, that's basically exactly the same as putting your search query into a chat bot, but it ALSO has all the links from a regular Google search so you can quickly corroborate the info even using sources not from the original AI result (so you also see discordant sources from what the AI answer had)?
- thom 10mo ago
  The regular google search AI doesn’t do thinky thinky mode. For most buying decisions these days I ask ChatGPT to go off and search and think for a while given certain constraints, while taking particular note of Reddit and YouTube comments, and come back with some recommendations. I’ve been delighted with the results.
  - Marsymars 10mo ago
    I wouldn’t be surprised if ChatGPT was Pareto optimal for buying decisions… but I suspect there are a whole pile of Pareto optimal ways to make buying decisions, including “buy one of the Wirecutter picks” or “buy whatever Costco is selling”.
    - thom 10mo ago
      Even in the case where you have a good shortlist of items, the ability to then ask follow up questions in a conversational format is very useful for me. Anyway, just explaining why one might use ChatGPT for this rather than the Google search box, obviously your mileage is welcome to vary.
  - blinding-streak 10mo ago
    I chuckled at "thinky thinky" mode. If some ai company used this branding it would win a lot of hearts and minds methinks
    - heresie-dabord 10mo ago
      It could backfire badly. "Some messages are tough to write, let's thinky-think it through together." "Golly, your codey-code could use some help. Ask me what I thinky-think!" "I'm here to help you thinky-think while you worky-work!"
  - aprilthird2021 10mo ago
    You ... You outsource decisions on what you buy to ChatGPT??? I am so worried for you when they decide to turn the screws to monetize it...
    - thom 10mo ago
      I use ChatGPT to find products and opinions about those products, same way I'd use Google. I'd never just click on the top sponsored result in Google and buy it, and I'd never just click on a result in ChatGPT and buy it. And yeah, there are lots of reasons I might change my mind in the future - I no longer buy anything from Amazon, for example, because there's no way for me to trust what I'm getting. But right now it's a great way of researching options.
      - aprilthird2021 10mo ago
        Okay fair enough, thanks for the info!
raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
We don’t need anecdotes. We have data. Google has been announcing quarter after quarter of record revenues and profits and hasn’t seen any decrease in search traffic. Apple also hinted at the fact that it also didn’t see any decreased revenues from the Google Search deal. AI answers is good enough and there is a long history of companies who couldn’t monetize traffic via ads. The canonical example is Yahoo. Yahoo was one of the most traffic sites for 20 years and couldn’t monetize. 2nd issue: defaults matter. Google is the default search engine for Android devices, iOS devices and Macs whether users are using Safari or Chrome. It’s hard to get people to switch 3rd issue: any money that OpenAI makes off search ads, I’m sure Microsoft is going to want there cut. ChatGPT uses Bing 4th issue: OpenAIs costs are a lot higher than Google and they probably won’t be able to command a premium in ads. Google has its own search engine, its own servers, its own “GPUs” [sic], 5th: see #4. It costs OpenAI a lot more per ChatGPT request to serve a result than it costs Google. LLM search has a higher marginal cost.
- matkoniecz 10mo ago
  > Google has been announcing quarter after quarter of record revenues and profits and hasn’t seen any decrease in search traffic. this kind of things may take some time to spread across population
- Izkata 10mo ago
  Given the audience here vs the general population, I can't help but wonder if it's just the alternate search engines like DuckDuckGo/Kagi/Bing that are losing search traffic. From the population sizes even the alternate ones that are Google-based might just not be enough to be visible in Google's numbers.
sod22 10mo ago
I personally know people that used ChatGPT a lot but have recently moved to using Gemini. There’s a couple of things going on but put simply - when there is no real lock in, humans enjoy variety. Until one firm creates a superior product with lock in, only those who are generating cash flows will survive. OAI does not fit that description as of today.

aprilthird2021 10mo ago

I'm genuinely curious. Why do you do this instead of Google Searches which also have an AI Overview / answer at the top, that's basically exactly the same as putting your search query into a chat bot, but it ALSO has all the links from a regular Google search so you can quickly corroborate the info even using sources not from the original AI result (so you also see discordant sources from what the AI answer had)?

thom 10mo ago
The regular google search AI doesn’t do thinky thinky mode. For most buying decisions these days I ask ChatGPT to go off and search and think for a while given certain constraints, while taking particular note of Reddit and YouTube comments, and come back with some recommendations. I’ve been delighted with the results.
- Marsymars 10mo ago
  I wouldn’t be surprised if ChatGPT was Pareto optimal for buying decisions… but I suspect there are a whole pile of Pareto optimal ways to make buying decisions, including “buy one of the Wirecutter picks” or “buy whatever Costco is selling”.
  - thom 10mo ago
    Even in the case where you have a good shortlist of items, the ability to then ask follow up questions in a conversational format is very useful for me. Anyway, just explaining why one might use ChatGPT for this rather than the Google search box, obviously your mileage is welcome to vary.
- blinding-streak 10mo ago
  I chuckled at "thinky thinky" mode. If some ai company used this branding it would win a lot of hearts and minds methinks
  - heresie-dabord 10mo ago
    It could backfire badly. "Some messages are tough to write, let's thinky-think it through together." "Golly, your codey-code could use some help. Ask me what I thinky-think!" "I'm here to help you thinky-think while you worky-work!"
- aprilthird2021 10mo ago
  You ... You outsource decisions on what you buy to ChatGPT??? I am so worried for you when they decide to turn the screws to monetize it...
  - thom 10mo ago
    I use ChatGPT to find products and opinions about those products, same way I'd use Google. I'd never just click on the top sponsored result in Google and buy it, and I'd never just click on a result in ChatGPT and buy it. And yeah, there are lots of reasons I might change my mind in the future - I no longer buy anything from Amazon, for example, because there's no way for me to trust what I'm getting. But right now it's a great way of researching options.
    - aprilthird2021 10mo ago
      Okay fair enough, thanks for the info!

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago

We don’t need anecdotes. We have data. Google has been announcing quarter after quarter of record revenues and profits and hasn’t seen any decrease in search traffic. Apple also hinted at the fact that it also didn’t see any decreased revenues from the Google Search deal. AI answers is good enough and there is a long history of companies who couldn’t monetize traffic via ads. The canonical example is Yahoo. Yahoo was one of the most traffic sites for 20 years and couldn’t monetize. 2nd issue: defaults matter. Google is the default search engine for Android devices, iOS devices and Macs whether users are using Safari or Chrome. It’s hard to get people to switch 3rd issue: any money that OpenAI makes off search ads, I’m sure Microsoft is going to want there cut. ChatGPT uses Bing 4th issue: OpenAIs costs are a lot higher than Google and they probably won’t be able to command a premium in ads. Google has its own search engine, its own servers, its own “GPUs” [sic], 5th: see #4. It costs OpenAI a lot more per ChatGPT request to serve a result than it costs Google. LLM search has a higher marginal cost.

matkoniecz 10mo ago
> Google has been announcing quarter after quarter of record revenues and profits and hasn’t seen any decrease in search traffic. this kind of things may take some time to spread across population
Izkata 10mo ago
Given the audience here vs the general population, I can't help but wonder if it's just the alternate search engines like DuckDuckGo/Kagi/Bing that are losing search traffic. From the population sizes even the alternate ones that are Google-based might just not be enough to be visible in Google's numbers.

sod22 10mo ago

I personally know people that used ChatGPT a lot but have recently moved to using Gemini. There’s a couple of things going on but put simply - when there is no real lock in, humans enjoy variety. Until one firm creates a superior product with lock in, only those who are generating cash flows will survive. OAI does not fit that description as of today.