OpenAI launched ChatGPT search on October 31st, offering up-to-the-minute sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more, powered by real-time web search and partnerships with news and data providers. And just like that, Google has actual competition in search for the first time in two decades.
This Has Been Coming for Months
OpenAI prototyped the feature, known originally as SearchGPT, earlier this year, giving access to selected users and partnering with selected publishers. But a prototype is different from a full launch. This is OpenAI saying "we're actually doing this" and putting real resources behind search as a core product.
The release could have implications for Google as the dominant search engine, and shares of Alphabet were down about 1% following the news. A 1% drop doesn't sound like much, but for a company the size of Google, that's billions of dollars in market cap. The market is taking this seriously.
I've been testing ChatGPT search for a few days, and honestly? It's good. Not perfect, but genuinely useful in ways that feel different from Google.
How It Actually Works
Many of the results to queries appear like those one would find on a standard Google search—looking up "Chinese food" yields a list of reviews for nearby restaurants, while a search for advice about a vacation to Costa Rica produces travel blogs and hotel listings.
But here's the difference: instead of ten blue links, you get a conversational response that synthesizes information and cites sources. The tool summarizes that information and cites where it came from. Want to know more? Click through to the source. Want to ask a follow-up? Just type it.
ChatGPT will choose to search the web based on what you ask, or you can manually choose to search by clicking the web search icon. Most of the time it figures out when you need current information versus when its training data is sufficient. Not always, but usually.
Someone I know who's tried both said ChatGPT search is better for complex queries where you need synthesis across multiple sources, while Google is still faster for simple factual lookups. That tracks with my experience too.
The Publisher Partnerships Matter
OpenAI collaborated with news partners including The Associated Press, Reuters, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Hearst, Dotdash Meredith, the Financial Times, News Corp., Le Monde, The Atlantic, Time and Vox Media. This is OpenAI trying to avoid the copyright clusterfuck that's plagued AI companies.
By partnering with publishers directly, OpenAI ensures they have legit access to news content and presumably pays for it. To prepare for the launch, OpenAI secured several agreements with media companies like The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and Vox to allow for their content to be included in its search results.
This matters because publishers have been pissed about AI companies scraping their content without permission. Getting ahead of that with actual partnerships is smart business and probably necessary to avoid lawsuits.
What Google's Doing About It
Google's not sitting still. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Alphabet investors have been concerned that OpenAI could take market share from Google in search by giving consumers new ways to seek information online. They've been rolling out AI Overviews, updating Gemini, and integrating AI throughout their search experience.
But Google has a fundamental problem: their business model is built on ads in search results. ChatGPT search, at least for now, has no ads. OpenAI said it collaborated extensively with its news partners and carefully listened to feedback. Will that last? Probably not. But for now, it's a cleaner experience.
The Microsoft Angle Makes This Weird
ChatGPT Search uses other search engines on the backend to power its search results, including Bing, the search engine run by Microsoft, which is one of OpenAI's biggest investors. So Microsoft is helping OpenAI build a product that competes with... Bing.
Microsoft's bet seems to be that they win either way. If Bing gains market share, great. If ChatGPT search takes off and uses Bing on the backend, also great. They're hedging their bets across multiple approaches to challenging Google.
It's actually kind of brilliant. Google has to fight on multiple fronts while Microsoft can experiment with different strategies.
Will People Actually Switch?
All ChatGPT Plus and Team users, as well as members of SearchGPT's waitlist, can access ChatGPT search starting Thursday, with ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users getting access in the next few weeks, and the product rolling out to free users over the coming months.
The phased rollout makes sense—test with paying customers first, iron out issues, then expand. But will people actually change their search habits? Google is the verb for search. "Google it" is in the dictionary. That's serious incumbent advantage.
My guess: ChatGPT search becomes the preferred tool for certain types of queries—research, complex questions, synthesis across sources—while Google remains dominant for quick factual lookups. Not a replacement, but a complement.
Sam Altman Basically Admitted the Future of Search
Altman hinted at the platform's potential during a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' session: "I find it to be a way faster/easier way to get the information I'm looking for… especially for queries that require more complex research." He even envisions a future where search queries could dynamically create custom web pages in response.
That last part is wild. Imagine asking a question and instead of links or a summary, you get a custom-generated webpage with exactly the information you need, formatted specifically for your query. That's the direction this is headed.
We're watching search evolve in real-time from "here are links to pages that might have your answer" to "here is your answer, with sources, formatted for your specific question." It's a fundamentally different paradigm.
My Take
ChatGPT search is the most serious challenge to Google's search dominance in years. Not because it's going to immediately steal half of Google's users, but because it demonstrates a better way to find information for certain use cases.
Google will adapt. They have to. But adapting means potentially cannibalizing their ad-driven search business, which is their cash cow. That's a tough position to be in.
For users, this is great. Competition drives innovation. Google's been coasting for years because nobody could challenge them. Now they can't afford to coast anymore.
Whether OpenAI can actually scale this into a sustainable business remains to be seen. But as a shot across Google's bow? It landed.