Neeva AI search engine aims to replace the traditional “10 blue links” in search results with something better suited to the current AI era. As Microsoft and Alphabet roll out Bard and Bing AI, the race for AI-powered search engines intensifies. However, as both leading browsers arguably failed in this race, which we explained in our article Bard AI wrong answer costed roughly 120 billion to Alphabet, and Neeva AI search engine brings a new breath to the competition.
In order to compete with the ChatGPT hype machine, Neeva co-founder and CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy, who formerly led Google’s advertising tech division, announced new “cutting edge AI” and large language models (LLMs) back in December.
How confident is the Neeva AI search engine?
“ChatGPT cannot give you real-time data or fact verification,” Ramaswamy wrote in December. “In our upcoming upgrades, Neeva can.” And last month Neeva officially introduced NeevaAI, marketed as an “authentic, real-time AI search,” to the American market.
Technically, users from all over the world could have accessed the Neeva AI search engine since then, but it needed some account settings finagling, such as switching the language and location options. However, we’re in the middle of February now and as of yesterday, the Neeva AI search engine is formally launched to logged-in users in countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Spain.
A week after Microsoft sparked the search engine wars with the addition of ChatGPT to its Bing search engine and the promise of a completely revamped search experience, which makes the timing of yesterday’s release is particularly noteworthy.
Where was Neeva before?
To summarize quickly, Mountain View, California-based Neeva initially introduced a subscription-only search engine in its native U.S. market n June 2021. Later, a free “basic” tier with some limitations was added. In October, the company launched the search engine in Europe, and since then, it has expanded to new markets all over the world.
The company’s main selling point is that Neeva seeks to make money through traditionally paid subscriptions rather than through advertising, and it bans third-party trackers from utilizing personal data to display targeted adverts.
Users won’t have to navigate through an abundance of sponsored results in an ad-free search environment to find the organic links they desire. However, Neeva’s fundamental design is largely the same as search engines have been since before even Google entered the picture — a continuous row of links to distinct sources with a few aesthetic additions.
However, the business hopes to contribute to the reimagining of search by using the Neeva AI search engine.
What is so special about the Neeva AI search engine?
Over the past few weeks, users have experimented with NeevaAI, and based on their tests, it performed quite admirably. NeevaAI was able to answer questions like “Why were the Beatles so popular?” and “What is the world 5k [running] record?,” with Neeva generating an answer from a variety of cited sources in real-time.
By avoiding the “black box” debates that surround many AI systems, these citations are another aspect that makes the Neeva AI search engine unique. The concept behind this is that by revealing the sources of information, the Neeva AI search engine will not only encourage transparency but will also give content creators the credit they deserve and boost their chances of receiving referral traffic in the future.
However, the Neeva AI search engine might not be as entertaining as search engines that employ ChatGPT. This is because the Neeva AI search engine won’t answer questions for the questions that it can’t find trustworthy sources. As Ramaswamy explains, “Roughly speaking, it works for questions that we can find authority websites that answer that question.”
On the other side, this could also be exactly what you are looking for. AI promise to make web searches easier and more resourceful. With both Bard and Bing AI producing possibly faulty information, strictly using reliable information at the expense of entertainment may actually be the right choice.
You can try the Neeva search engine from this link, but you need to create an account to experience the Neeva AI search engine.
