Sometimes it seems like the only way to browse the internet is through the Google Search bar. But with recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), the way we search for information online is changing.
AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have paved the way for a whole new era of online search where information is served directly to the user rather than in the form of pages and pages of text across the internet.
But, while these chatbots are great for finding information quickly, they lack key features of search engines and have the tendency to show outdated or inaccurate information.
This makes them more suited to conversations or to complete specific tasks within their domain rather than browsing the internet
For those looking for an AI search experience, AI search engines are your best option.
What are AI search engines?
AI search engines are platforms that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand your search queries and provide more relevant and accurate results.
They go beyond the traditional keyword matching of traditional search engines by delving deeper into the meaning and intent behind your search, using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze your query and consider things like context, grammar, and even sarcasm.
AI search engines personalize results based on your past searches, browsing history, and location. This helps them understand what you're truly looking for, even if your keywords are vague or imprecise.
They can also handle multimedia content like images and videos, understanding their context and relevance to your query.
What’s the difference between AI search engines and traditional search engines?
The main difference between AI search engines and traditional search engines lies in their approach to understanding your query and delivering results.
Traditional search engines rely on keyword matching and ranking based on page authority and backlinks while AI search engines understand the meaning and intent behind your query using factors like content, grammar and sarcasm. This allows them to interpret even imprecise keywords and grasp your true search goal.
Traditional search engines also tend to return websites containing your keywords, often prioritizing popular sites and paid ads. These results may not always be directly relevant to your intent, making it difficult to find the information you’re looking for.
Read: Top 10 AI Chatbots Your Business Should Know About
AI search engines, on the other hand, use AI algorithms to rank content based on relevance, not just keyword presence. They can also tailor results based on your past searches, browsing history, and location, showing you content more likely to interest you.
In some cases, AI search engines can even provide direct answers to your questions, summarizing information from various sources instead of just linking you to websites.
Choosing an AI search engine
Choosing the right AI search engine can be tricky since they're a each built for different purposes. You first need to consider which type of AI search engine you're looking for depending on your needs and interests when searching the web.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the most common types of AI search engines:
- General-Purpose AI Search Engines:
These are all-rounders like You.com and Perplexity, aiming to handle diverse queries with NLP and knowledge graphs. They strive for:
- Personalized results: Tailoring results based on your search history and preferences.
- Relevance beyond keywords: Understanding the intent behind your query and surfacing relevant content, even if keywords don't perfectly match.
- Direct answers: Sometimes providing summaries or answers directly, instead of just linking to websites.
- Privacy-Focused AI Search Engines:
For privacy-conscious users, options like Brave Search and DuckDuckGo prioritize data security and anonymity. They:
- Avoid tracking and profiling: Don't collect your search history or personal data.
- Offer unbiased results: Aim to avoid filter bubbles and present diverse perspectives.
- May prioritize open-source technologies: Emphasize transparency and user control over data.
- Visual AI Search Engines:
These engines, like Andi, leverage image recognition and visual understanding to process your queries. They're ideal for:
- Finding images and videos: Search by content within images or videos, not just by text descriptions.
- Exploring visually rich topics: Discover visually appealing content related to your search, like fashion trends or travel destinations.
- Combining text and image search: Refine your search by using both keywords and visual elements.
- Specialized AI Search Engines:
Some engines cater to specific niches, like Metaphor AI for scientific research or Luminous for creative writing. They offer:
- Domain-specific knowledge graphs: Deep understanding of their respective fields, leading to more accurate and relevant results.
- Tailored functionalities: Features and interfaces designed for specific needs, like scientific notation search or creative writing prompts.
- Community-driven focus: Some engines, like Luminous, emphasize user-generated content and collaboration in their niche.
Choosing the right AI search engine depends on your individual needs and preferences. Experiment with different options and find one that complements your search habits!
Top AI Search Engines
There are a range of AI search engines available today, each with its own set of features purpose-built to improve your search experience.
In this list, we’re counting down ten of the best AI search engines available today exploring the features and functions that make them so popular in 2024.
Yep by Ahrefs
Yep is an AI search engine developed by the SEO company Ahrefs that stands out as the world’s best, private, revenue-sharing search engine. The platform employs NLP and other AI technologies to understand your intent and deliver relevant results, even for complex queries without compromising your privacy or personal data. It also has a unique set of features, such as the "Yep TLDR box,” –which summarises key information from Wikipedia and news sources – and the "Similar Websites" feature which adds suggestions for exploring related content.
Unlike traditional search engines, which track user data for advertising, Yep prioritizes user privacy by and doesn't track your search history or personal information for personalised ads. It also stands out for sharing 90% of its ad revenue with the creators of the content displayed in search results, supporting creators and challenging the traditional search engine model where profits primarily go to the platform instead of creators. The revenue-sharing model aims for a fairer distribution of profits in the online ecosystem, while also surfacing relevant and accurate information by rewarding high-quality content creators.
Aria by Opera
While not an AI search engine in itself, Opera's Aria is a great choice for those who want the AI search experience but are happy with traditional search as well. Living within the Opera side and Fully integrated into the browser, Aria provides answers to simple queries quickly without digging through web pages and search results. It’s built on the Opera Composer AI engine and OpenAI’s GPT LLM, providing a simple but effective interface to make it easy for users to instantly find the information they’re looking for.
What makes Aria so great is that you don’t have to open up the sidebar to use it. Instead, you can open up a command line-like overlay where you can quickly type in a question or prompt. You can also highlight text directly on a webpage, which opens up a menu for Aria to translate what you’ve highlighted, explain it, or find related topics on the web. You can select between Aria and OpenAI’s ChatGPT directly on the Opera browser too, giving you the flexibility to choose the AI search tool that best suits your preferences.
Komo Search
Komo Search is a private, ad-free AI search engine with a range of features focusing on user-driven exploration and discovery. One of its main features is Explore, which lets you scan all social media platforms for a certain topic see what the community is talking about and join the conversation. Another standout feature of Komo is Chat, which allows you to deep dive into topics and brainstorm ideas while interacting with a friendly chatbot that can answer your questions and provide suggestions. This chatbot goes beyond factual chatbots and offers creative suggestions, summaries, and explanations by leveraging an LLM to deliver personalised results.
Rather than returning to top-ranked websites or just throwing links at you, Komo caters to your curiosity and fosters deeper exploration of topics. It does this while respecting your privacy and letting you see the reasoning behind its responses, building trust and understanding. Komo is also community-powered, allowing you to learn from others and contribute to a diverse knowledge base.
Waldo
Waldo is an AI search engine known for its unique focus on privacy, user adaptation, and personalized search results. The platform learns from your past searches, browsing history, and interests to tailor results and highlight information most relevant to you. This allows it to deliver truly tailored search results based on your unique preferences and needs, leading to a more relevant and efficient experience. Its shortcut highlights Identifying key sections of search results, allowing you to quickly grasp the information without reading everything.
At the same time, Waldo stands out amongst AI search engines with its rigorous commitment to user privacy and data security. It utilises advanced privacy-preserving techniques to ensure your search data remains secure and anonymous. No user profiles are created, and searches are never linked to individuals.
Phind
Originally designed for developers, Phind is a powerful intelligent search engine and assistant that uses generative AI to give you the answer you're looking for in seconds rather than hours. Connected to the internet and, optionally, to your codebase, Phind provides up-to-date and accurate answers to your query using sources from the web. But rather than linking to relevant websites, it provides an AI-generated answer to your question directly on the search page based on the most relevant sources to your query. It then lists the most relevant sources to your query below the answer so you have the option to research a query in more detail if its explanation isn’t enough.
Phind’s results go beyond just links. The platform combines web results with generative AI to give you answers, code examples, and guides tailored to your search needs. It also learns from your past searches and preferences to tailor future results and gain a better understanding of the types of queries you search for. While it may be built for developers, Phind is a great choice for anyone looking for quick and easy answers to their questions – no matter how complex the query is.
Andi
Andi is another AI search engine that's accurate, ad-free and privacy-focused. The platform is known for its visually-driven search approach and focuses on delivering accurate, relevant information by using generative AI, live data and semantic search technology to find results related to your search query. Combining traditional text search with image and video understanding, allows you to search for and discover content based on both keywords and visuals while getting straight to the knowledge you need. This makes it ideal for finding images and videos based on content, not just keywords, and a powerful choice for research in visually oriented fields like design, fashion, or art.
Andi uses e-language models to understand what you're looking for and to predict the best places to find it. Instead of just linking to websites, it provides direct answers and summaries of information while emphasising factual accuracy and avoiding the "hallucinations" common in some AI models and chatbots. Andi is also multilingual and offers a visually appealing and user-friendly interface that's easy to navigate.
You.com
You.com is an AI-powered search engine with a focus on understanding your intent and delivering comprehensive, relevant results. Named one of Fortune’s 50 AI Innovators in 2023, the platform combines the power of the GPT-3.5 Large Language Model (LLM) with a vast knowledge base to answer questions directly, summarize information, and provide detailed explanations. It aims to avoid online filters and present diverse perspectives while tailoring results to your preferences and search history.
You.com notably introduced the first consumer-facing LLM with access to the internet to provide up-to-date answers and include citations and recently debuted AI Modes, a set of tools to optimize your AI experience, each tailored to different needs and tasks. It also provides up-to-date citations and integrates references and sources for all information, offering transparency and enabling further research.
Metaphor AI
Metaphor AI is an innovative LLM-powered search engine that stands out for its unconventional approach to retrieving and presenting information online. Rather the simple keyword matching, the platform focuses on understanding the underlying semantics and relationships between concepts, using metaphors as a bridge between user queries and relevant information. It does this using a proprietary "next link prediction" algorithm that analyzes how existing content is linked to predict what users might find relevant based on their current query and the metaphors related to it. This allows it to understand the contextual meaning behind the query so it can provide highly relevant results tailored to your search intent.
Initially developed for scientific research, Metaphor AI excels at navigating complex academic literature and uncovering hidden connections between difficult concepts so that you can understand them. It also automatically generates these concepts as a knowledge graph, visualising content to help you grasp its meaning more easily. Metaphor also offers powerful search filters such as publication date, author and citation, giving you more options and semantic understanding to refine your search and find exactly what you need.
Bing AI
Launched in February 2023, Bing AI is a significant revamp of the Bing Search engine that integrates AI into its core functionalities and user experience. Along with regular text and voice-based search with accurate speech recognition, Bing AI goes beyond keyword matching, using OpenAI’s GPT-4 LLM to understand your intent and deliver more relevant and comprehensive results. It can summarise search results and provide you with a more complete answer, while users are free to fully interact with it or ask for more details.
Bing AI Summarizes information from various sources, presenting concise answers directly on the search page, often replacing the need to click through websites. It also enriches traditional search results with additional information, tools, and widgets like maps, images, town histories, and relevant video previews. It also connects seamlessly with the Microsoft Edge browser, allowing you to initiate searches, access AI features, and view results within the browser interface.
Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI is an AI search engine that challenges the traditional search model by prioritising content creators and user privacy while offering a powerful and insightful search experience. The platform is designed to search the web in real time and offer up-to-date information on various topics. It provides users with the ability to obtain immediate answers to questions along with relevant sources and citations. This functionality is supported by a diverse range of LLMs, including those from OpenAI and Meta's open-source model LlaMa – which summarises and generates accurate information in seconds.
Read: Is Perplexity AI Better than ChatGPT? A Comparison
Perplexity prioritizes user privacy by minimizing data collection and avoiding profiling. It utilizes anonymization techniques and doesn't track your search history or personal information. It also shares 90% of its ad revenue with the creators of the content displayed in search results, supports content creators and breaks away from the traditional model where search engines profit primarily from ads while creators receive little to no compensation. Overall Perplexity AI is a powerful tool with an intuitive user interface that is one of the best AI search engines for finding information on a wide range of topics.
