How I made Perplexity AI the default search engine in my browser (and why you should too) - Related to asking, bowl, r1), a, engine

How I made Perplexity AI the default search engine in my browser (and why you should too)

To that claim, I'll add this: I only use AI for specific types of searches, mostly research, where I find Google and DuckDuckGo to be less than helpful. For everything else, I'll go with a traditional search tool.

not long ago, I discovered I could set Perplexity as my default search engine in my web browser, and it's been a game-changer. I'm not going to say the results are 100% helpful and 100% accurate, but the same thing could be presented of Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and every search engine on the market. In fact, I take this one step further. With the Arc browser, I can set a specific search engine for different profiles. To that end, I have Perplexity set as the search engine for my writing profile and DuckDuckGo set for my user profile. This way, when I'm in my writing or work Workspaces (which are associated with my writing profile), I get the power of AI for searches, and when I'm in any other Workspace, I get the simplicity of a traditional search engine.

Also: Zen Browser is the customizable Firefox I've been waiting for - here's why.

But with Perplexity, you get more than just a search engine. You get news summaries ("What's in the news today?"), a deep research tool that allows for follow-up questions, and you don't have to worry about ads or paid sites bubbling to the top of your search queries. For example, in my current book, which is a sci-fi series about rehousing the population on the moon, I have to find out what can cause a "dust storm" of regolith on the moon. With Perplexity, I get my answer, but then I can follow up by asking questions regarding the answer, while still retaining the original answer.

For me, this combination of AI and traditional search has done wonders for my ability to get the information I need quickly, and as long as I always vet any suspect AI answer, it's all good.

Let me show you how I added Perplexity to both Chrome and Firefox.

How to add Perplexity as a search engine for Chrome.

What you'll need: The only thing you'll need for this is a running instance of the Chrome (or Chromium) web browser.

Also: I tried Perplexity's assistant, and only one thing stops it from being my default phone AI.

How to make Perplexity your default search engine in Firefox.

With Firefox, we'll add a third-party add-on.

2. Configure Perplexity as a search engine.

And that, my friends, is all there is to adding Perplexity as your default search engine in Chrome and Firefox.

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You could win $1 million by asking Perplexity a question during the Super Bowl

SOPA Images / Contributor / Getty Images.

Although you may be tuning into the Super Bowl for the football, you'll also be exposed to the latest in tech. (Remember last year's Temu and Copilot ads?) This year, Perplexity is getting in on the action, running a campaign that could win you $1 million.

Also: How to watch Super Bowl 2025: Every streaming service available, including Tubi and Hulu.

Perplexity AI revealed that this Sunday, February 9, it will be holding its Perplexity Million Dollar Question sweepstakes during the Super Bowl. To enter, all individuals have to do is download the Perplexity app [iOS or Android] and ask the app questions during the big game.

people can begin submitting entries at 3 [website] PT/ 6 [website] ET (that's a half hour before kickoff) and are limited to 26 entries per person. Sweepstakes entries are calculated as follows: One entry for downloading the app, creating an account, and entering the sweepstakes; one entry per app referral (capped at 20); and five extra raffle entries for asking five questions during the game.

The questions don't have to be related to the Super Bowl, although the game could be a good starting point for questions such as, "Where did the Eagles get their name from?" However, since Perplexity is meant to function as an AI-enhanced search engine, you can ask it whatever you would typically type into Google.

Also: Perplexity lets you try DeepSeek R1 without the security risk, but it's still censored.

Even though you can't enter until game day, you can input your phone number here to get notified on Super Sunday. The sweepstakes is limited to US residents and citizens 18 years or older. The winner will be notified within three hours after the end of the game.

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The best AI for coding in 2025 (and what not to use - including DeepSeek R1)

I've been around technology long enough that very little excites me, and even less surprises me. But shortly after Open AI's ChatGPT released, I asked it to write a WordPress plugin for my wife's e-commerce site. When it did, and the plugin worked, I was indeed surprised.

That was the beginning of my deep exploration into chatbots and AI-assisted programming. Since then, I've subjected 14 large language models (LLMs) to four real-world tests.

Also: The five biggest mistakes people make when prompting an AI.

Unfortunately, not all chatbots can code alike. It's been almost two years since that first test, and even now, five of the 14 LLMs I tested can't create working plugins.

In this article, I'll show you how each LLM performed against my tests. There are two chatbots I recommend you use, but they cost $20 per month. The free versions of the same chatbots do well enough that you could probably get by without paying. But the rest, whether free or paid, are not so great. I won't risk my programming projects with them or recommend that you do, until their performance improves.

I've written a lot about using AIs to help with programming. Unless it's a small, simple project like my wife's plugin, AIs can't write entire apps or programs. But they excel at writing a few lines and are not bad at fixing code.

Also: I tested DeepSeek's R1 and V3 coding skills - and we're not all doomed (yet).

Rather than repeat everything I've written, go ahead and read this article: How to use ChatGPT to write code.

If you want to understand my coding tests, why I've chosen them, and why they're relevant to this review of the 14 LLMs, read this article: How I test an AI chatbot's coding ability.

Let's start with a comparative look at how the chatbots performed:

Next, let's look at each chatbot individually. I'll discuss 13 chatbots, even though the above chart presents 14 LLMs. The results for GPT-4 and GPT-4o are both included in ChatGPT Plus. Ready? Let's go.

Sometimes uncooperative More Details Price: $20/mo.

Tests passed: 4 of 4 ChatGPT Plus with GPT-4 and GPT-4o passed all my tests. One of my favorite elements is the availability of a dedicated app. When I test web programming, I have my browser set on one thing, my IDE open, and the ChatGPT Mac app running on a separate screen. Also: I put GPT-4o through my coding tests and it aced them - except for one weird result In addition, Logitech's Prompt Builder, which pops up using a mouse button, can be set up to use the upgraded GPT-4o and connect to your OpenAI account, making it a simple thumb tap to run a prompt, which is very convenient. The only thing I didn't like was that one of my GPT-4o tests resulted in a dual-choice answer, and one of those answers was wrong. I'd rather it just gave me the correct answer. Even so, a quick test confirmed which answer would work. But that issue was a bit annoying. I didn't have that issue in GPT-4, so for now, that's the LLM setting I use with ChatGPT when coding. View now at OpenAI.

No desktop app More Details Price: $20/mo.

LLM: GPT-4o, Claude [website] Sonnet, Sonar Large, Claude 3 Opus, Llama [website] 405B.

Tests passed: 4 of 4 I seriously considered listing Perplexity Pro as the best overall AI chatbot for coding, but one failing kept it out of the top slot: how you log in. Perplexity doesn't use a username/password or passkey and doesn't have multi-factor authentication. All the tool does is email you a login PIN. The AI also doesn't have a separate desktop app, as ChatGPT does for Macs. What sets Perplexity apart from other tools is that it can run multiple LLMs. While you can't set an LLM for a given session, you can easily go into the settings and choose the active model. Also: Can Perplexity Pro help you code? It aced my programming tests - thanks to GPT-4 For programming, you'll probably want to stick to GPT-4o, because that aced all our tests. But it might be interesting to cross-check code across the different LLMs. For example, if you have GPT-4o write some regular expression code, you might consider switching to a different LLM to see what that LLM thinks of the generated code. As we'll see below, most LLMs are unreliable, so don't take the results as gospel. However, you can use the results to give you more things to check in your original code. It's sort of like an AI-driven code review. Just don't forget to switch back to GPT-4o. View now at [website].

Free access Cons Only available in browser mode.

Free access likely only temporary More Details Price: Free (for now).

Tests passed: 3 of 4 I have to say, Grok surprised me. I guess I didn't have high hopes for an LLM that appeared tacked onto the Social Network Formerly Known as Twitter. But then again, X is now owned by Elon Musk, and two of Musk's companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have towering AI capabilities. It's not clear how much of the Tesla and SpaceX AI DNA went into Grok, but we can fairly assume that there will likely be more work. As it is now, Grok is the only LLM not based on OpenAI LLMs that made it into the recommended list. Also: X's Grok did surprisingly well in my AI coding tests Grok did make one mistake, but it was a relatively minor one that could be easily remedied by a slightly more comprehensive prompt. Yes, it failed the test. But by passing the others, and by even doing an almost perfect job on the one it passed, it earned itself a spot as a contender. Stay tuned. This is one to watch. View now at X.

Passed most tests Cons Prompt throttling.

Could cut you off in the middle of whatever you're working on More Details Price: Free.

Tests passed: 3 of 4 in [website] mode ChatGPT is available to anyone for free. While both the Plus and free versions support GPT-4o, which passed all my programming tests, there are limitations when using the free app. OpenAI treats free ChatGPT individuals as if they're in the cheap seats. If traffic is high or the servers are busy, the free version of ChatGPT will only make [website] available to free individuals. The tool will only allow you a certain number of queries before it downgrades or shuts you off. Also: How to use ChatGPT: What you need to know now I've had several occasions when the free version of ChatGPT effectively told me I'd asked too many questions. ChatGPT is a great tool, as long as you don't mind getting shut down sometimes. Even [website] did more effective on the tests than all the other chatbots, and the test it failed was for a fairly obscure programming tool produced by a lone programmer in Australia. So, if budget is critical to you and you can wait when cut off, go for ChatGPT free. View now at OpenAI.

Range of research tools Cons Limited to [website].

Throttles prompt results More Details Price: Free.

Tests passed: 3 of 4 I'm threading a pretty fine needle here, but because Perplexity AI's free version is based on [website], the test results were measurably superior than the other AI chatbots. Also: 5 reasons why I prefer Perplexity over every other AI chatbot From a programming perspective, that's pretty much the whole story. But from a research and organization perspective, my ZDNET colleague Steven Vaughan-Nichols prefers Perplexity over the other AIs. He likes how Perplexity provides more complete insights for research questions, cites its insights, organizes the replies, and offers questions for further searches. So if you're programming, but also doing other research, consider the free version of Perplexity. View now at [website].

Efficient resource utilization Cons Weak general knowledge.

Limited integrations More Details Price: Free for chatbot, fees for API.

Tests passed: 3 of 4 While DeepSeek R1 is the new reasoning hotness from China that has all the pundits punditing, the real power right now (at least ) is DeepSeek V3. This chatbot passed almost all of our coding tests, doing as well as the (now mostly discontinued) ChatGPT [website] Also: I tested DeepSeek's R1 and V3 coding skills - and we're not all doomed (yet) Where DeepSeek V3 fell down was in its knowledge of somewhat more obscure programming environments. Still, it beat out Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and Meta's Meta AI, which is quite the accomplishment all on its own. We'll be keeping a close watch on each DeepSeek model, so stay tuned. View now at Deepseek.

I tested 14 LLMs, and seven passed most of my tests. The other chatbots, including a few pitched as great for programming, each only passed one of my tests -- and Microsoft's Copilot didn't pass any.

I'm mentioning them here because people will ask, and I did test them thoroughly. Some bots do just fine for other work, so I'll point you to their general reviews if you're just curious about how they function.

Unlike DeepSeek V3, the advanced reasoning version DeepSeek R1 did not showcase its reasoning capabilities when it came to our programming tests. It was odd that the new failure area was one that's not all that hard, even for a basic AI -- the regular expression code for our string function test.

Also: I tested DeepSeek's R1 and V3 coding skills - and we're not all doomed (yet).

But that's why we are running these real-world tests. It's never clear where an AI will hallucinate or just plain fail, and before you go believing all the hype about DeepSeek R1 taking the crown away from ChatGPT, run some programming tests. So far, while I'm impressed with the much-reduced resource utilization and the open-source nature of the product, its coding quality output is inconsistent.

GitHub's Copilot integrates quite seamlessly with VS Code. It makes asking for coding help very quick and productive, especially when working in context. That's why it's so disappointing that the code it writes can often be so very wrong.

Also: I put GitHub Copilot's AI to the test - and it just might be terrible at writing code.

I can't, in good conscience, recommend you use the GitHub Copilot extensions for VS Code. I'm concerned that the temptation will be too great to just insert blocks of code without sufficient testing -- and that GitHub Copilot's produced code is just not ready for production use. Try again next year.

Meta AI is Facebook's general-purpose AI. As you can see above, it failed three of our four tests.

Also: 15 ways AI saved me time at work in 2024 - and how I plan to use it in 2025.

The AI did generate a nice user interface but with zero functionality. And it did find my annoying bug, which is a fairly serious challenge. Given the specific knowledge required to find the bug, I was surprised it choked on a simple regular expression challenge. But it did.

Meta Code Llama is Facebook's AI designed specifically for coding help. It's something you can download and install on your server. I tested it running on a Hugging Face AI instance.

Also: Can Meta AI code? I tested it against Llama, Gemini, and ChatGPT - it wasn't even close.

Weirdly, even though both Meta AI and Meta Code Llama choked on three of four of my tests, they choked on different problems. AIs can't be counted on to give the same answer twice, but this result was a surprise. We'll see if that changes over time.

Anthropic states the [website] Sonnet version of its Claude AI chatbot is ideal for programming. After failing all but one test, I'm not so sure.

If you're not using it for programming, Claude may be a improved choice than the free version of ChatGPT.

Claude can handle uploaded files, process more words than the free version of ChatGPT, provide information roughly a year more current than [website], and access websites.

Gemini Advanced is Google's $20 pro version of its Gemini (formerly Bard) chatbot. I expected the tool to do enhanced than one out of four. Interestingly, it passed the one test that every AI other than GPT-4/4o failed -- knowledge of that fairly obscure programming language produced by one programmer in Australia.

So, if it knew that language, why couldn't it handle basic regular expressions or other first-year programming student problems?

You'd think the organization with the "Developers! Developers! Developers!" mantra in its DNA would have an AI that does superior on the programming tests. Microsoft produces some of the best coding tools on the planet. And yet, Copilot did badly.

Also: What are Microsoft's different Copilots? Here are the differences and how you can use them.

The one positive thing is that Microsoft always learns from its mistakes. So, I'll check back later and see if this result improves.

But I like [insert name here]. Does this mean I have to use a different chatbot?

Probably not. I've limited my tests to day-to-day programming tasks. None of the bots has been asked to talk like a pirate, write prose, or draw a picture. In the same way we use different productivity tools to accomplish specific tasks, feel free to choose the AI that helps you complete the task at hand.

The only issue is if you're on a budget and are paying for a pro version. Then, find the AI that does most of what you want, so you don't have to pay for too many AI add-ons.

The results of my tests were fairly surprising, especially given the big investments of Microsoft and Google. But this area of innovation is improving at warp speed, so we'll be back with updated tests and results over time. Stay tuned.

Have you used any of these AI chatbots for programming? What has your experience been? Let us know in the comments below.

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