I was fine using Google until I learned about Perplexity, the search engine of dreams.
It’s motto is “Where knowledge begins.” Google’s covert motto is “Where an endless column of sites which may give you an answer but will also try to sell you something begins.”
And that’s the beauty of Perplexity. Say you have a question. Today, for instance, I wondered what “Kol Nidre” means. (One of my random dives into learning something about my Jewish heritage.) I went to Perplexity. I got the complete answer without having to go into another site.
Perplexity does offer links to other pertinent sites where I could further explore my question but places those sites discretely, politely above the answer and in small boxes, so you don’t feel superficial if you don’t click on ’em.
Perplexity is an intellectual’s search engine. I don’t have to ask a direct question, and I don’t have to make my search info short: I can type in a full thought without a question. And when Perplexity rolls out the information I’m seeking, it offers related, perhaps more esoteric, matters I might wish to investigate.
I learned about Perplexity from my sister, a physician, who told my brother, a musician, who told me. My sister said it gives her medical information that can prompt her to think differently or more deeply about a problem. She loves it.
If you try Perplexity, I bet you, too, will want to thank my sister.
P.S. I hadn’t realized Perplexity operates (is that the right word?) on A.I. So not only do I get information, I feel au courant in getting it. I’m a hipster. Again.
P.P.S. At this moment, Beethoven’s 16th string quartet, opus 135, is playing on Music Choice. And I was thinking “This was his last composition, wasn’t it?” So I asked Perplexity, and yes. It was his last composition.