Today, OpenAI made the most predictable announcement in the history of tech. It’s getting into the search business.
In a blog post, the company announced “We’re testing SearchGPT, a prototype of new search features designed to combine the strength of our AI models with information from the web to give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources. We’re launching to a small group of users and publishers to get feedback. While this prototype is temporary, we plan to integrate the best of these features directly into ChatGPT in the future.”
Testing with publishers is a direct shot across Google HQ. Publishers have been decrying the Google algorithm for years now, so OpenAI seems keen to entice them over to their take on search. They already have partnerships with News Corp and The Atlantic, showing how seriously the company is coming for Google’s wallet.
The company says that “We are committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators. We hope to help users discover publisher sites and experiences, while bringing more choice to search. For decades, search has been a foundational way for publishers and creators to reach users. Now, we’re using AI to enhance this experience by highlighting high quality content in a conversational interface with multiple opportunities for users to engage.”
The product looks exactly like what you would expect from the company that makes ChatGPT. You type something into a search bar and get a conversational response. The results, the company says, are made to highlight the publishers from which content comes.
The company has released SearchGPT in beta with a small group for now, but you can always sign up to be on the waitlist.
I’m still waiting for Apple Search
While it’s great to see Google finally get some serious competition in the search business, I’ve been waiting for Apple to make an entrance here for a while. I know it’s bad to say “finally get some serious competition,” but we know how its been — there’s a reason that Bing got demoted for Copilot.
I’m certainly not planning on using SearchGPT. OpenAI has not been a company focused on user privacy, so I imagine you’ll be giving up just as much information to them as you would Google. I’ve been using Ecosia and DuckDuckGo, two privacy-focused search engines, for years now and found that they’ve been perfectly adequate replacements for Google.
I’d love to see Apple buy Ecosia or DuckDuckGo and make Apple Search happen, but if the company hasn’t made that move yet, I doubt that it will anytime soon. Maybe the company will leverage what it is building with Apple Intelligence to create its own on the heels of OpenAI’s SearchGPT?
I wouldn’t hold my breath, but we’re in a new whole new AI world so it feels like anything is possible at this point. Apple is also so focused on privacy at this point that it feels like a privacy-focused search engine from the company is inevitable at this point.
All I know is that I would immediately use Apple Search over any other search engine on the market, so the company already has me as a customer — even if they haven’t released the product yet.
