Rare that I share a flip in our Sign of the Times magazine and feel the need to stop everything and write about what I found, but when you see the future best to stop, think, and ponder. So reading JR Raphael's This intelligent new search site is like a mashup of Google and ChatGPT for Fast Company was a stop-the-presses moment.
Lately, I've felt like I was howling at the moon once again. I'm in the "ChatGPT" changes search camp, but not for the reasons you may expect. First, when using ChatGPT to help research a post, my Google searches were more than cut in half. Of course, half as many searches means I'd see half the ads, but that wasn't why searching as Google executes it today feels endangered.
Using ChatGPT was FUN, engaging, and flowed. Answers to one question would often prompt another question. ChatGPT's conversational feel combined with a real human voice that sounds as smart and humble as Malcolm Gladwell is what crashed the Internet.
Here's how JR introduced Andi.
While the hype around those systems may feel new, the sentiment driving their development is something Angela Hoover knows well. Hoover, 24, is a cofounder and the CEO of a Y Combinator-backed AI-powered search startup called Andi. And along with her cofounder Jed White—a veteran techie who’s been involved with search and AI for almost as long as Hoover has been alive—she’s been working to usher in a new era of search for a solid few years now.
You need serious startup chops to attend Y Combinator, and it sounds like Angela Hoover and Jed White is on a mission to make search better. They've got something based on playing with Andi for over an hour. Andi is a hybrid because a ChatGPT-like answer shows up on the left with attribution, while top SEO results appear on the right.
Andi's structure is how I have worked since discovering ChatGPT last December. Technical questions go to ChatGPT. When OpenAI's tool falls short, I fire up Google search and wade through websites looking for answers too elusive for the chatbot. Research always starts with ChatGPT because answers come faster and are more fun than searching. Back in the day, Google was fun, but only a little lately as the same three websites win most searches and ads, no matter how discreet, rule. Everything is about the experience these days, and Andi's search experience is how I'm already working.
What about you? Do you like Andi? Do you see Andi's hybrid ChatGPT-like AI and Google search results as winning the future? Create an account and comment or email msmith @ wte.net.