ChatGPT has taken Twitter by storm, let’s test which is better: Google, Duck Duck Go, or ChatGPT with a few prompts. I am intentionally comparing their search functions, so I am not looking at ChatGPTs other abilities (writing prompts, summarizing data, etc).
Stage 1- Factual Questions
List of names who signed the U.S Declaration of Independence.
Google
Ad- took me to buy items related to topic
Ad- took me to article telling me George Washington did NOT sign DOI
Ad- took me to site telling me to download resources
Ad- took me to a video that was an intro to a class speaking on subject
National Archives- perfectly answers my question
Duck Duck Go
National Archives. Same link as above. Not hidden beneath 4 ad links.
CHATGPT
Immediately spit out 56 signatures
Tom had 7 apples, he ate one yesterday, and gave Mary 2 today. How many apples does he have now?
Google- Similar type questions, but does not answer my question.
Duck Duck Go- Similar to google. Related questions, no answers.
ChatGPT- answered it so well, I asked a followup
For Stage 1, Chat GPT is clearly better at giving quick answers and was 2/2 in terms of accuracy, although the questions were elementary level. I will ask one more at a slightly more advanced level.
Provide the necessary journal entries that a company must record when selling a widget for revenue.
Google-Answer provided in high-level detail after scrolling through ads/pictures and summaries.
DDG- Provided a list of 10 common entries, the top example was Debit AR, Credit Sales, but there is no other detail.
ChatGPT- Robust Answer that continues past my screenshot with more specific details.
Stage 2- How to…
How do I cook scrambled eggs
Google (This time I skipped Ads- which were obviously wrong- i.e how to hard-boil eggs????)
Does answer my question, but the amount of ads, pics, and unnecessary summaries makes me want to throw my computer out the window. Can’t even provide a screenshot, unless you want a close up of an egg. Click below link and think to yourself. “Is this pleasant?” Imagine you are a 9 year old who is hungry, is this a good user experience?” Google is broken because of articles like this.
https://www.loveandlemons.com/scrambled-eggs-recipe/
DDG- skipped ads, answered Q, with less nauseating experience than google, but still insane amounts of scrolling past ads and pictures of eggs.
CHATGPT- Crisp and convenient.
Stage 3- Subjective travel
What are three things I should do in New York City
Google- after 4 ads that dont even come close to answering the question, google gives 12 attractions
DDG- Ads, then an article with a bunch of ads, scrolling. then a list of 37 things.
CHATGPT- actually gave 3, thanks for listening!
Stage 4- Explain both sides
Explain both sides of the abortion debate
Google- 4 ads, followed by the Wikipedia article
DDG- middle school level article. not nearly as robust as wiki. Insane amounts of ads compared to content
CHATGPT
Stage 5 predict
Who will win the Super Bow
Google- first article predicts entire playoffs, followed by google in house summaries, which gives clean odds.
DDG- Article ranking teams by likelihood. Tons of ads.
ChatGPT- I DID NOT READ FINE PRINT CLOSE ENOUGH
Conclusion
ChatGPT has obvious value and actually answers questions. i.e when I ask for 3 things, GPT gave it, while google and DDG gave me the closest they could.
In general I worry the main benefit of ChatGPT is that it isn’t monetized yet. Google and to a clearly lesser extent DDG not only kill you with ads themselves, the articles you click are much worse. Google frequently gave 4 ads on the search taking up the whole page, meaning I had to scroll 100% of the time to get an actual answer. This is not user friendly. In addition, almost every article I clicked on via Google or DDG was so user unfriendly that I couldn’t even post a screenshot in this post. My whole screen was taken over by 10 ads and a picture of an egg. The only 2 articles I clicked on that I would say are acceptable were the wikipedia article and the government website….
Duck Duck Go is basically a slightly less ad version of google, that claims to not track you. DDG was better than google in a couple instances (i.e giving list of DOI signers first instead of below 4 ads). Google shines when it summarizes multiple articles (i.e Super Bowl odds).
I am overall impressed with ChatGPT. We will see if it’s still a good product once monetized.
Good thought-The true villain of the story are the companies that do SEO, just to give you a webpage that maximizes ad load. FUCK YOU!
-Goob