How to Easily Search the Internet Using ChatGPT Search
OpenAI is working hard to make ChatGPT search a viable product . It is available free of charge to all users without restrictions. And now, just like Google Search, you can use it without signing in to an account.
But even with all the AI features , Google search still focuses on giving you direct links to pages, while ChatGPT search instead uses online sources to give you a link-backed answer. You can click the links in the sources of your answer to open the website (and you should really check out ChatGPT’s homework as it tends to hallucinate ), but the question remains: is it worth making ChatGPT Search your default search engine, and is it even possible?
What is ChatGPT search?
ChatGPT Search is OpenAI’s attempt to integrate something like a web search engine into its artificial intelligence products. You access it through the same page as regular ChatGPT —pressing the Search button before pressing Enter will turn your question into a search instead.
OpenAI will then feed knowledge from web searches, gathering the latest information, into its latest artificial intelligence model. The result is still a long-winded, text-heavy answer to your question, but now with links to cited sources. Although for topics like weather, you get visual results. Even compared to Perplexity, ChatGPT’s search interface does not require much media, contextual information, or video.
Compared to Google search, you don’t get sponsored post boxes or product listings. You don’t get a list of references by default either, but you can scroll to the bottom of the answer and click the Sources button to open a short list at the top in the sidebar. The interface is simple: it’s still just text, but better formatted, with different sections for citations and highlighting different results.
Should ChatGPT Search be your default search engine?
The user’s default search engine is the desired destination, and most browsers only include a few popular and safe options such as Google Search, DuckDuckGo, Bing, and so on. So far, no browser has found a place to search for ChatGPT in this list. However, there are workarounds. In fact, the official OpenAI method is itself a workaround. It turns out that browsers like Chrome and Firefox allow you to switch your default browser, but only if it comes as a verified extension from their own extension store.
Before I get to the workarounds, I want to say that this caveat makes sense. A search engine is a window to your entire online world. Many users no longer manually enter website URLs to navigate to web pages. Instead, they do a Google search and click on the first link that pops up (a dangerous practice that leads to many phishing attacks , but that’s not the point).
Trust is a huge factor when choosing a search engine, and I’m not sure ChatGPT has cleared that bar yet. When comparing Google search and ChatGPT search , we found that ChatGPT search interface is much better than the bloated mess that Google search has become. ChatGPT Search is good at explaining things to you directly and can be a great way to dig deep into a product before purchasing anything new. But for everyday use, when you’re looking for a link to a web page, ChatGPT search just doesn’t cut it. For most users, I’d recommend you stick with Google, take a couple of tips to eliminate AI interference if you like , or consider using a privacy-friendly search engine like Kagi .
How to make ChatGPT search the default search engine if necessary
If you’ve made it this far and still want to set ChatGPT Search as your default search engine, you can do so using the official OpenAI ChatGPT Search Chrome extension . This works in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, etc. However, note that Microsoft Edge gives an additional pop-up when you try to enable it, and Chrome will also ask for confirmation before it releases the default search engine location. However, once installed, anything you enter into the URL bar that is not a valid web address will go directly through the ChatGPT search.
Unfortunately, Safari and Firefox do not support ChatGPT Search as a search engine, and there is no extension for them either. However, there is still a workaround for Firefox, which I’ll cover in the next section.
How to create a ChatGPT search shortcut
Even though you can make ChatGPT search your default search engine, for most people I think it would be better to create a shortcut to ChatGPT search instead. It’s called Site Search and is available in all Chromium browsers, as well as Firefox (sorry Safari users).
In Chromium browsers this is a really simple process. Open Settings in Chrome, go to Search Engine in the sidebar, and under Site Search, click the Add button.
Here, enter “ https://chatgpt.com/?q=%s&hints=search ” in the URL section and use something like “@gpt” as a shortcut. Give it a name like “ChatGPT Search” and click “ Save ”.
Now go to the URL bar, enter “ @gpt ” or whatever name you named your shortcut, press space and enter what you want to query in ChatGPT Search. When you press Enter, the results will open in ChatGPT as if ChatGPT were your default search engine.
In Firefox, installing such a shortcut requires access to a hidden settings page. Type “ about:config ” in the address bar and click “Accept the risk and continue .”
In the search bar, enter ” browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh ” and click the Plus icon next to the search result. Now make sure the value is True .
Now go to Firefox settings and select Search from the sidebar. In the Search Shortcuts section, click the Add button.
Add ” https://chatgpt.com/?q=%s&hints=search ” as the system URL, give it a name and an alias which will be the shortcut. Then click “Add mechanism” .
You have now added ChatGPT as a site search that can be launched using a shortcut.
The new ChatGPT site search will now also show up in the “Default Search Engine” field, so if you really want it, you can also make ChatGPT the default search in Firefox. Again, I wouldn’t advise you to go that far.