I gave Google’s AI Mode a shot, but I’m still sticking with Perplexity

We have already seen the AI ​​slip into Google search, whether you like it or not. The IA glimps began as a frustrating product that has spoiled the original research experience with slow responses, inaccuracies and occasional walls of unnecessary text. But that has slowly improved, and for quick requests where you did not want to scroll through the forums or click on five different links, it has actually become useful. This is what made me hope when, at E / S, Google announced a full IA mode for daily use.

Now, I relied on the perplexity for my web research powered by AI for a while. I stopped “googling” there are a lot. So, if the same type of AI capabilities could be cooked in Google research, why would I be another application, right?

It turns out that it is not so simple. Once I started comparing both, the results were much more complicated.

To give a look at the two tools, I asked them the same set of questions to see how well they performed. With the massive understanding of Google of the Web – and the fact that most Internet is essentially designed to bypass the search – I assumed that the mode would have the soil with perplexity.

But here is the thing: this is not the amount of data you have, it is what you do with it.

Logical Laps to Weear

We are talking about smartphones all day here, so of course, that’s where I started. I imagined an average user who wishes to upgrade his phone without doing intense research – Read long criticism, watch youtube videos and reveal Reddit publications for credibility. So I asked the mode of helping.

The prompt was simply to suggest the best phones from Samsung and Apple less than $ 1,000.

Google’s AI mode has returned with confidence with the Galaxy A56 and the iPhone 16th – solid phones, of course, but they are well below the budget. The rest of his suggestions were no better. He thinks that the iPhone 14, a renovated iPhone 13, the Galaxy A35 and the Ultra Galaxy S23 are good phones for this type of budget. It was essentially a mess with a confusing mixture of old and new handsets, premium and budget.

Anyone who is based on this to carry out real market studies would go wrong.

I tried to guide it more. I insisted on the latest models and asked for a side by side comparison. I obtained the comparison, but the suggestions remained blocked in budgetary territory. He just wouldn’t move.

The perplexity, on the other hand, gave me a table in its first response – clearly arranged, with the out -of -competition features of each phone and for whom is the phone. Most importantly, it gave me what I expected for less than $ 1,000: the Galaxy S25 Plus and the iPhone 16/16 Pro. You know, the current things in progress.

In addition, Google’s AI mode felt like it is pressure for a sale. The whole page of results was strewn with purchasing links as an exaggerated seller – it was then that I was still trying to decide what I even wanted.

I love these AI tools can save me from the opening of 20 tabs just to get a clear answer or create a decent travel plan. I asked for both AI mode and the perplexity of helping me plan a seven -day budget trip to Vietnam, and AI mode was again a mixed bag.

Google’s IA mode was definitely fast. It gave me a full day plan in the first result itself. The results of the AI ​​mode and perplexity were curiously too similar, as if they learned from the same source material. But the presentation is the place where the gap was really obvious.

The AI ​​mode gave me a long block of exhausting text interrupted only by fleas with their own text blocks. So many words oblige you to browse the information which is already a summary of even more text, beating the very purpose of intelligence, artificial or other.

Perplexity needed follow -up for a detailed plan, but the answer was so much better – clean tables, well -used text and a table with detailed and total estimated expenses. I mainly use the perplexity to work on my desk, and the experience on the big screen was even better. Each suggested hotel had a photo for reference, a view of the map of its location and some rapid advantages and disadvantages of the place (photo below). This kind of little touch goes very far. Meanwhile, the world’s largest search engine has struggled to even include images in its AI results despite their explicit request.

AI mode = Macroble implementation mode

I have already mentioned how heavily IA mode is in text, especially on a phone screen. The arrangement needs more love of Google designers, because at the moment, it looks dense and, honestly, even a little off -putting.

Beyond the visuals, the real work flow is also a bit clumsy. You must go to the AI ​​fashion section from the Google search page or the application, and it is only then that you can start typing your request. You cannot start talking to AI mode as well as perplexity allows it. Add to this, the presence of IA and IA mode overviews on the search results page, both trying to serve the same objective: adding the size.

And do not embark on the location of the cat history – it is still a process in several stages because you must first enter AI mode. The AI ​​mode does not give you an easy way to review the past wires, which is somehow the interest of AI search tools that work around follow -up and context, which would be lost if you cannot continue in the same wire.

There is a clear difference between a product designed for AI from zero, and that where AI was only a complementary module.

Perplexity seems more intentional and logically healthy. The results are better presented, the interactions are more fruitful, and it does not seem to have a hidden pattern, as you click on the “Buy” button. It is not perfect, but it is mature, like an old wine.

Google’s AI mode is a bit rough on the edges, but since it is always a new feature, I can already see where it could reach with a little varnish. Knowing Google and the rhythm he it is with his Gemini models and his integrations, I would not be surprised if I came back in a few months and that I spent completely.