Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing all manner of things. It should be no surprise, then, that it is bound to revolutionize online searching, which has been dominated by Google. A new search engine, Perplexity, threatens Google’s dominance by delivering answers in narrative form with links to the resources from which the narrative was derived in two forms: annotations without the text and tiles that appear above it. Nowhere in evidence are the paid (and often lower-quality) links that occupy most of the first search engine results page these days. But how often will you click one of those links if Perplexity gives you the information you need? Neville and Shel have both become devoted Perplexity users and discuss it in this short midweek episode.

Links from this episode:

• Perplexity
• Can This A.I.-Powered Search Engine Replace Google? It Has for Me. (The New York Times, paywalled)
• Perplexity AI: Here are 10 things to know on search platform
• The Future of Online Search: A Closer Look at Perplexity AI (Neville’s blog)
• Why I Switched From Google Search to Perplexity (Shelly Palmer)

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, February 26.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Nev

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