OpenAI

OpenAI SearchGPT AI Search Engine: Features, UI, How to Use

Published

4 months ago

July 25, 2024

OpenAI has announced SearchGPT, its search engine with AI features to surf the internet and bring results to the user, also a new competitor to Google.

Initially, SearchGPT stands as a prototype and needs testing before it could go public. Later, the company would integrate it into ChatGPT. It is powered by new capabilities using OpenAI‘s AI models from text to images. The engine will share search results with sources.

In May, reports surged regarding this search engine. It was expected to launch at the GPT-4 Spring 2024 Updates Event in the same month but the company denied such a product. It appears that the company has been saving this for a later.

User Interface

The homepage is simple and it’s somewhat similar to Google. It has a search bar and an enter button. You can type the query and press enter or the search button with a mouse click.

OpenAI SearchGPT Search Bar (Source – OpenAI)

The search result screen is clean and brings a title, a thumbnail, a text snippet, and a source link. Titles are not clickable, instead, you have to enter the source mentioned at the end of each search result.

SearchGPT Search Results (Source – OpenAI)

You can hover over these sources (with backlinks) to see the full publisher name. That’s not it, you can toggle all of the sources in detail by entering the Sources Links button on the sidebar. The left side also houses a new search button and images.

SearchGPT Source Link (Source – OpenAI)

A few more options in the bottom left that appear to be night mode and search settings. None of these are detailed in the announcement.

SearchGPT also has an edge over Google, which is a continuous conversation. Similar to ChatGPT, you can pick a search result and ask more questions about it.

Partnership:

OpenAI has partnered with many publishers and creators to create a search ecosystem. The company has spent about a year signing agreements and deals to bring these on board.

The prototype is designed to receive feedback from early users and publishers to improve the search experience. Soon, publishers will have more control over their appearance in search results.

Interestingly, OpenAI says that SearchGPT works differently from its other models such as ChatGPT. So that publishers can opt out of training. It has also built a new crawler to bring searches in the results. Furthermore, an update will add local information and commerce search.