Remember when searching the internet meant crafting the perfect Google query, opening multiple tabs, and scanning through pages of content to find what you were looking for? It feels almost prehistoric now. The way we interact with information has fundamentally changed with the rise of AI assistants, and there’s no going back.
The Old Way: Google’s Link Paradise
Just a few years ago, our typical workflow for finding information looked something like this:
- Type a carefully worded query into Google
- Open 4-5 promising links in new tabs
- Scan each page for relevant information
- Piece together an answer from multiple sources
- Repeat if we didn’t find what we needed
This process worked, but it was time-consuming and often frustrating. We became experts at scanning pages for relevant content, learning to ignore adverts and navigate through SEO-optimised fluff to find actual answers.
Enter Perplexity: The AI-First Search Engine
Using Perplexity feels like having a knowledgeable research assistant at your fingertips. Instead of links to pages, you get direct answers synthesised from multiple sources, complete with citations. The conversation flows naturally:
- You ask a question in plain English
- Perplexity provides a comprehensive answer
- You can follow up with clarifying questions
- Sources are readily available if you want to dig deeper
The experience is more like having a conversation with a well-read friend than hunting through web pages. It’s not just faster; it’s a fundamentally different way of accessing information.
Cursor: Revolutionising Developer Workflows
For developers, the transformation is even more dramatic. Cursor has changed how we approach coding challenges and documentation. The old way:
- Searching Stack Overflow
- Reading through lengthy documentation
- Trial and error with different solutions
We can now:
- Ask Cursor directly about our code
- Get contextually aware suggestions
- Receive explanations tailored to our specific implementation
- Debug issues with AI-powered assistance
- Still read through lengthy documentation 🙂
To a degree the AI can understand our codebase, making suggestions more relevant and useful than generic searched for answers. It’s like having another developer to rubber-duck with, ready for you to pester at any moment without the need to wait for them to become available.
The Future of Information Access
This shift from “searching for pages” to “asking AI assistants” represents a fundamental change in how we interact with information. It’s not just about speed or convenience; it’s about a more natural and efficient way to learn and solve problems.
The old way of searching isn’t going away entirely - there will always be times when we want to dive deep into source material. But for many of our daily questions and challenges, AI assistants have become the go-to solution. They’ve removed the friction between having a question and finding an answer, making information truly accessible in a way that wasn’t possible before.
As these tools continue to evolve, the gap between how we think and how we access information will continue to shrink. The future of search isn’t about better algorithms for finding pages - it’s about more intelligent ways of understanding and answering our questions.