12 Best AI That Can Search the Web

Searching for information online is second nature for most of us now. However, what happens when you need to sift through many search results to find exactly what you’re looking for? The process can quickly become tedious, especially if you’re under a deadline or working on a substantial project. 

Fortunately, AI tools that can search the web exist to help you cut down on research time and improve your writing workflow. In this guide, we’ll explore how an AI’s ability to scour the internet for information can enhance efficiency and help you write better.

One AI workflow automation tool that can help you tap into this capability is Otio’s AI research and writing partner. This solution lets you organize your research, find reliable information, and improve your writing.

Table Of Contents

• Importance of Web Searching

• Benefits of Using AI That Can Search the Web

• 12 Best AI That Can Search the Web

• How to Use AI for Web Searching

• Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today

Importance of Web Searching

Quick Access to Information: Search Engines Make It Easy For You to Discover Relevant Information Fast 

The most significant benefit of search engines is that they give users quick access to information. When users have a question or want to learn about a topic, they can simply type their inquiry into a search engine and receive a list of relevant results within seconds. This list may include web pages, news articles, videos, and social media posts. The information is often organized by relevance, making it easy to find precisely what you need.  This process is much quicker than manually navigating to different websites to look for information or consulting a physical reference book. 

Navigating the Web: Search Engines Help You Find Your Way Online 

Another key benefit of search engines is that they help us navigate the vast Internet. There are billions of websites on the World Wide Web, and without search engines, it would be nearly impossible to find specific information within this enormous database. Search engines make it easy to discover website content, so you don’t have to spend hours (or days) sifting through results pages to find what you need. 

Supporting Businesses: Search Engines Help Companies Get Noticed Online 

Search engines are also essential for businesses operating in today’s digital world. Most consumers use search engines to find information about products and services. If your company isn’t featured prominently on search results pages, you will miss out on a valuable source of potential customers. Search engines help businesses build their client base by increasing exposure through SEO (search engine optimization), generating traffic, and eventually attracting consumers. 

Promoting Education and Learning: Search Engines Give Everyone Access to Knowledge 

Search engines also promote education and learning. No matter where they are, everyone with an internet connection may study thanks to search engines, which provide access to a wealth of educational materials, including instructional videos and scientific publications. 

Enhancing Productivity: Search Engines Streamline the Search Process 

Search engines enhance productivity by saving time and effort. When you need to find information, search engines streamline the process, enabling you to find relevant content quickly. This boosts productivity for both personal and professional tasks, allowing you to accomplish more in less time. 

Personalized Experiences: Search Engines Cater to Your Unique Preferences 

Modern search engines also provide personalized experiences that cater to your unique preferences. They make the search process quicker and more relevant to your requirements and interests by customizing results depending on your location, preferences, and prior searches. 

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Benefits of Using AI That Can Search the Web

1. Rich APIs Deliver Relevant Results Faster

AI search engines utilize robust APIs and components to embed content search, guided navigation, and promotions effortlessly into any website. These features operate using customized, context-aware rules that leverage predictive, type-ahead functionality in milliseconds. This helps deliver relevant content suggestions in real time.

2. Improved Accuracy

Intelligent search, another term for AI-powered search, offers several benefits over traditional search methods. One major perk is improved accuracy. AI-powered search engines deliver more precise search results by understanding the context and intent behind a search query.

3. Personalized Results

Another advantage of AI search is its ability to provide personalized search results based on a user's real-time search preferences. The more the user interacts with the search feature, the better the results.

4. Efficient Information Retrieval

AI-powered search engines can quickly sift through vast amounts of data to find the most relevant information, making the search process more efficient and user-friendly.

5. Better User Experience

By delivering more accurate and personalized search results, AI technology helps provide a better user experience. 

6. Real-World Impact

AI-powered site search is already proving its value and delivering some impressive results. For example, just one month after implementing an AI-powered site search for Sitecore.com, we experienced 50% more results being returned for some top keywords and a 25% increase in click-through rate (CTR). We are also accessing several new capabilities, including: 

• Real-time personalization 

• PDF indexing 

• Questions and answers 

• Recommendation widgets 

• Advanced conversion reporting 

Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner -- try Otio for free today!

12 Best AI That Can Search the Web

1. Otio: The Ultimate Research Assistant

Knowledge workers, researchers, and students are overwhelmed by content overload and left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

1. Collect many data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

2. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

3. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Along with this, Otio also enables you to write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that are loved by researchers: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. 

Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner -- try Otio for free today!

2. Perplexity: Get An Accurate and Organized Overview of Your Research Queries

Perplexity AI is great for users who like to go into their sources. The tool is excellent at giving your source links, which is especially useful for any research-oriented searches. I loved the folders feature, which allows me to group and store specific queries related to a topic. For instance, I could categorize all my queries about experiential marketing research into one folder. The tool has also been praised for its accuracy, made possible by trust signals from established sources like Google and Bing (along with its algorithms) to ensure the information's reliability. This approach minimizes the risk of misinformation and enhances the overall accuracy of search results. 

Pros

• Create browsing history threads and save collections of pages to facilitate better organization. 

• Search for images or videos using a multi-modal search. 

• Opt out of data collection for AI model improvement and customize your privacy settings. 

• Use the incognito mode to enhance privacy during searches further. This mode ensures that no search history is saved while using the service. 

Cons

• While the user interface is generally intuitive, there are limited options for customization. 

• It can only provide information and insights based on data available up to October 2023. 

3. Bing AI: A Traditional Search Engine with Advanced AI Features

Bing is one of the oldest players in the search engine game. In addition to Microsoft Copilot, the tech company’s answer to the AI assistant boom, Microsoft augmented the general search function in Bing with an AI overlay. While Bing looks and feels like a traditional search engine, it has advanced AI search options like a toggle button enabling “Deep Search.” However, this feature is still in Beta. Compared with its competitors, Bing’s AI capabilities are being rolled out slowly, with features like additional citations and links popping up on the right-hand side. Still, I’d recommend this one for those who want to test the middle ground between a regular search engine and AI. 

Pros

• Use generative search to get comprehensive AI-generated insights on your search page. 

• Enable safety filters within search using the Safe Search feature. 

• Generate images from text-based prompts using Image Creator. 

Cons

• Microsoft warns of slower loading times, given the measures taken to ensure the accuracy of the generated text. 

4. Komo AI: An Integrated Search Tool with a Unique UI

Komo AI redefines what integrated search looks like. Instead of text-based responses, Komo surfaces website links, X threads, YouTube videos, and additional links on the right-hand side. An AI-generated summary of helpful results is also shown on the right hand for those looking for a surface-level search. This allows you to quickly glance at multiple data points at a glance and go deeper into what stands out to you. Now, that’s what I’d call ‘smart UI.’ I also liked the generated follow-up questions, which are targeted and helpful for those looking to learn more about a specific question. You can only do an advanced search by clicking on one of the follow-up questions rather than phrasing on your own. If you want to start a new search, you’ll have to launch it from the top menu. 

Pros

• It offers four user-centric search modes: Ask Search, Research, and Explore. 

• It positions itself as a private, ad-free search engine. 

• Unfurls small but detailed previews for reference links, allowing you to check the sources quickly. 

• Features a mind map format to organize search results visually. 

Cons

• Some users may find conversational features limiting as they cannot add follow-up questions. 

• You cannot easily copy or extract text from results, which limits what you can do with the data once the search is complete. Komo AI wants users to interact with the information better than simply copying text. 

5. Brave Search: A Privacy-Focused AI Search Engine

Brave Search is an AI-augmented search function from Brave Browser. It’s built in-house by Brave and powered by its models and algorithms. As a privacy-focused AI search engine, Brave Search operates independently, providing instant answers with cited sources alongside traditional search results. It looked and felt like Google, and I wasn’t impressed initially. But, when you click on ‘Answer with AI,” the whole thing changes to generate snippets of information and richer results with images. This is a key feature because AI is optional and can be leveraged when needed; it is not enabled by default. 

Pros

• Prioritizes user privacy, avoiding data tracking to ensure unbiased search results. 

• It uses its independent search index, offering a more neutral search experience. 

• Currently available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. 

• Answers with text, images, and information cards for points of interest. 

Cons

• The AI overlay can sometimes clutter the search experience and require too many clicks. 

6. Andi: A Straightforward Approach to Search

If you’re tired of the classic AI phrase “In today’s fast-paced world,” you need Andi. This AI search engine gives simple answers in the most straightforward language possible. The tool has three modes: Read, Summarize, and Explain, which make your search experience more relevant and tailored to your needs. I liked Read the best, as it works like an article viewer. Summarizing the feature felt standard, but I loved Explain, where the tool broke down complex topics into small bite-size chunks. 

Pros

• Generates the minimum necessary information to answer a question to avoid overwhelming the user. 

• Provides accurate, ad-free, and privacy-focused search results. 

• It uses a combination of generative AI, live data, and semantic search technology to provide accurate results. 

• Processes minimal data and does not store cookies. 

Cons

• Andi is still in the Beta version, a stable beta according to the team, but this limits the tool’s more expansive application. 

7. DuckDuck Go AI: A Dynamic AI Search Experience

Most of us have been drawn to DuckDuckGo as a browser due to its commitment to user privacy. The platform’s AI-augmented search feature (Beta) takes this further by providing a dynamic search experience. The AI feature in DuckDuckGo gave me concise, informative answers directly on the search results page. It’s pretty standard in generating summaries, information cards, and additional links. What I appreciate most is that it doesn’t compromise my privacy. Unlike other AI search engines, DuckDuckGo’s AI is designed to respect user data, ensuring my searches remain private and secure. While the AI feature is still in its early stages, it shows great promise. 

Pros

• Keeps conversations private and does not use them for AI model training. 

• Supports various AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 Turbo, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Haiku, Meta’s Llama 3.1 70B, and Mistral AI’s Mixtral 8x7B. 

• Allows users to switch between traditional search and AI chat easily. 

Cons

• Currently, it has a daily usage limit, and it cannot be increased via payment plans. 

8. Google Gemini: A Versatile AI Search Engine

Given its integration with the Google ecosystem, Google Gemini is a versatile AI search engine. It boasts an impressive 1.5 trillion parameters, significantly surpassing previous models in scale. But what does that mean for you and me? The parameters decide how much data it can process and in what form. In Gemini’s case, it can process significantly more data in video, audio, codebases, and text. The tool is also known for its multilingual capabilities, but I loved how it integrated Gemini Live for 40+ languages across Android devices. This multi-language voice search puts a whole new spin on AI search engines, making the technology accessible for non-English speaking users. 

Pros

• Process and generate text, code, images, and audio, making it a versatile search tool. 

• Write, understand, and debug code in multiple programming languages. 

• Excels at reasoning and problem-solving. Gemini scores 90% on the text-only questions, whereas human experts score approximately 89%. 

• Can handle large-scale tasks, given the more significant parameters (making it suitable for demanding applications). 

Cons

• Full access is restricted to developers and enterprise customers on Google Cloud platforms like Vertex AI and Generative AI Studio. 

9. YouChat: A Chat-Based Search Experience

You.com isn’t your typical AI search engine. Built to rival Google and other potential internet players, this platform offers a chat-first approach to search. I liked choosing between multiple AI models conveniently displayed next to the chat bar. Given the company’s overarching goal of being model agnostic, aka not being tied to any specific AI model, this makes sense. The platform can even recommend which AI model will be better for a given task, such as Claude for writing. You can start your query by choosing a specific use case, like Research, Creative, or Genius, or build one based on particular use cases. The whole process was relatively easy. Another standout feature here is You.com’s ability to access the web in real-time, which makes it much more accurate than its peers with limited data or no real-time web access. 

Pros

• Integrates real-time data into its responses, meaning you get the latest information, not just cached results. 

• It displays sources and shows where it pulls data from in real-time via Research mode. 

• Allows you to switch between 15+ different AI models (like GPT-4o mini) or based on use cases. 

• Use the YouApps feature to integrate with third-party tools like Todoist. 

Cons

• The results offered in the “Smart” AI model version appear accurate but pretty basic. 

10. Yep: Build Your Own AI Search Engine

If you want to build your own AI search engine, you need Yep AI. Built with businesses in mind, Yep AI offers AI-powered humans or chatbot avatars that can quickly train up on your data and help guide your customers through their queries. The setup process is relatively straightforward. You can feed it with data in different formats, such as Word documents, PDFs, your website, or even Excel spreadsheets. There is no need for fancy coding to convert the data into the correct format. Once the training bit is done, customize it and launch it on your website, and you’re done! You’ve just built your own private AI search bot (that looks human). 

Pros

• It can process information in multiple formats, such as PDFs or Word files, and even interpret images in documents. 

• Offer customized, intelligent recommendations based on specific queries. 

• It can be customized in color scheme and conversational tone based on brand guidelines. 

• Supports inquiries in over 50 languages across multiple channels. 

Cons

• The tool cannot be integrated with third-party apps like a WhatsApp customer chat. 

11. Phind: A Search Engine for Developers

Phind is a generative AI search engine designed for developers, enabling them to find precise answers to complex coding questions quickly. Launched in July 2022, Phind leverages large language models (LLMs) and high-quality context to respond in about 15 seconds, significantly faster than traditional search engines, which can take much longer than 34 seconds. It sports a user-friendly interface and encourages detailed queries, so even a complete code noob like me can go in there and ask for a code snippet. But I mostly spent time asking it to explain how stuff works, and I got some excellent, explanatory answers. 

Pros

• Supports coding in multiple languages, including Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, and others. 

• Helps with debugging, explaining code snippets, and suggesting improvements. 

• Answers questions about computer science concepts, software engineering principles, programming paradigms, and other theoretical aspects. 

• Assists with writing or improving API documentation. 

Cons

• Currently supports English primarily. 

12. SearchGPT Prototype: A New Way to Search

You may wonder how it is different from ChatGPT. As the name suggests, SearchGPT is more about search and less about chat. While the conversational interface is present, the focus will be on providing you with the correct links and sources rather than fully generating answers. Each response from SearchGPT will have transparent sources linked in-line, enabling users to trace it back to the source. The kicker? SearchGPT can give you references from publishers and websites that may have opted out of being listed for generative AI training data. But don’t get too excited yet because you need to sign up for a waitlist to try this out. 

Pros

• Combines OpenAI’s advanced AI with real-time web data to deliver precise search results. 

• Includes in-line citations and links in results for transparency. 

• Results include interactive content, including images and videos. 

Cons

• It is currently a prototype made available to a select number of users.

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How to Use AI for Web Searching

Take Control of Your Queries With AI Search Engines

Using AI search engines gives you more control over finding information online. Instead of entering a few keywords and sifting through pages of results to find what you’re looking for, AI search engines allow you to write your queries naturally. Not only does this help you find what you’re looking for faster, but it also helps the AI understand your specific needs. For example, instead of typing “green maxi dress shopping” to find a dress, you can type something like “I’m looking for a long forest green maxi dress with a plunging neckline and long sleeves. The bottom should be pleated. I’m a size 6.” An AI search engine can interpret this result and provide context-based answers. 

Traditional search engines used to rely on keywords to assess a result’s relevance to a given query. However, a simple Google search involves a complex algorithm that evaluates much more than just relevant keywords; it also looks at location, readability, website speed, backlinking, and more—including AI. Most major search engines now use AI features, so the line between traditional and AI searches is blurring. This ability to learn from a specific user’s language and response—and then deliver the information more conversationally—is the principal difference between traditional and AI search engines. AI can increase search relevance and make the whole search experience faster and more natural. 

Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today

Otio is an AI-powered research assistant that helps you streamline and simplify your research workflows. With the help of Otio, you will spend less time managing your sources and more time focusing on your writing. 

Collecting Data: Gather Information From All the Relevant Sources

Otio helps you collect information from all the relevant data sources. The app allows you to import bookmarks, PDF files, YouTube videos, and even Tweets – all before you start writing. With Otio, you can consolidate your research in one easy-to-navigate location. 

Extracting Key Takeaways: AI-Generated Notes to Accelerate Your Workflow

With Otio, you won’t have to read through every PDF or article in your reading list to write your paper. The app creates detailed AI-generated notes on all your bookmarks. You can open these notes to get the gist of the source and even use Otio’s AI chat feature to extract specific information. You can go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Creating Outputs: AI Assistance to Help You Write

Otio doesn’t just help you collect and organize your research – it also enables you to write papers and essays faster. The app can even generate a first draft for you, pulling information from the sources you collected. With Otio, you can produce academic work quickly while maintaining quality. 

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