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Perplexity got ads

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Re: Perplexity got ads

#131

Post by paulryanrogers »

pembrook wrote: post #123

Big surprise. It’s almost as if internet 1.0 shook out the way it did for a reason, and for all the complaining about ads, fast forward 25 years and consumers still fundamentally refuse to pay for search. It’s the same reason the phone book was also free and ad supported pre-internet. I don’t know why we can’t accept this reality and why we need to masochistically flog ourselves every time this is proven true over an…

Alternatives would be nice, and I'd agree the future doesn't have to be entirely one solution or entirely without certain others.

Many states have laws limiting billboards or posters to avoid obscuring nature and stop them from littering their communities. My hope is we can reign in the fraud and rampant escalation of ads, even if it means paying a bit more monetarily or trading a bit more privacy. So long as there is transparency and safety.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#132

Post by twelvechairs »

nomilk wrote: post #120

What are the advantages of Perplexity over, say, ChatGPT? I use three LLMs atm (ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok), and have a decent sense for which is better at different tasks. For example, when asked about questionable web scraping ChatGPT and Claude give answers regarding ethics, whereas Grok gives more direct, technical response. What is Perplexity better than other LLMs at?

You don't have to sign in or download the app is one big win

Re: Perplexity got ads

#133

Post by chrisweekly »

pembrook wrote: post #123

Big surprise. It’s almost as if internet 1.0 shook out the way it did for a reason, and for all the complaining about ads, fast forward 25 years and consumers still fundamentally refuse to pay for search. It’s the same reason the phone book was also free and ad supported pre-internet. I don’t know why we can’t accept this reality and why we need to masochistically flog ourselves every time this is proven true over an…

Yet Kagi is doing well, and I'm very happy to pay a few bucks a month to be their customer instead of their product.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#134

Post by occz »

rvz wrote: post #31
behnamoh wrote: post #24

Makes me wonder if the lowering of prices in this industry is temporary. Currently, the API costs are at an all-time low, but how much of it is subsidized by investor money? Are we going to see increasing prices as the hype goes away and post-nut clarity kicks in the industry?

> Makes me wonder if the lowering of prices in this industry is temporary. Yes. For example, Microsoft is keeping prices of Copilot temporarily free for as long as possible to destroy competitors who can't compete with the best tool available for free. This is a known attractive tactic to the point where it is the new definition of 'Extinguish' in Microsoft's EEE strategy: Embrace (Open Source, Github), Extend (OpenA…

I'm not sure I'd consider Copilot the best tool in the space, but I agree otherwise.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#135

Post by Spivak »

chrisweekly wrote: post #133
pembrook wrote: post #123

Big surprise. It’s almost as if internet 1.0 shook out the way it did for a reason, and for all the complaining about ads, fast forward 25 years and consumers still fundamentally refuse to pay for search. It’s the same reason the phone book was also free and ad supported pre-internet. I don’t know why we can’t accept this reality and why we need to masochistically flog ourselves every time this is proven true over an…

Yet Kagi is doing well, and I'm very happy to pay a few bucks a month to be their customer instead of their product.

You won't ever get big with this scheme but you can be sustainable.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#136

Post by __rito__ »

nomilk wrote: post #120

What are the advantages of Perplexity over, say, ChatGPT? I use three LLMs atm (ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok), and have a decent sense for which is better at different tasks. For example, when asked about questionable web scraping ChatGPT and Claude give answers regarding ethics, whereas Grok gives more direct, technical response. What is Perplexity better than other LLMs at?

Perplexity has been the most accurate LLM product, and sans hallucination till date. It is also the fastest. It also has inline citation, but other products do, too. But at one time it was the only product in market to offer that.

That's why I stick with Perplexity.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#137

Post by scarface_74 »

chrisweekly wrote: post #133
pembrook wrote: post #123

Big surprise. It’s almost as if internet 1.0 shook out the way it did for a reason, and for all the complaining about ads, fast forward 25 years and consumers still fundamentally refuse to pay for search. It’s the same reason the phone book was also free and ad supported pre-internet. I don’t know why we can’t accept this reality and why we need to masochistically flog ourselves every time this is proven true over an…

Yet Kagi is doing well, and I'm very happy to pay a few bucks a month to be their customer instead of their product.

Kagi has around 200K subscribers. I wouldn’t call that “doing well”.

Edit: that should be 29K subscribers

Re: Perplexity got ads

#138

Post by rchaud »

Interesting that the ad is for TurboTax of all things.

As a non-user, would Perplexity attempt to answer the question of "Why is TurboTax the best tax filing software?" with a response that cites the many efforts TurboTax has made to block a free public alternative?

TurboTax’s fight against free tax filing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31072202

Re: Perplexity got ads

#139

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

tomrod wrote: post #56
jsheard wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does OpenAI, but they're still burning billions of dollars every year. Ads are another way to stem the bleeding.

Ads are myopic and signal lack of ability by a company to be viable.

Perhaps what parent means is viable _without relying on ads_.

When Google was announced in the early 1990s the founders said they wanted to provide a search engine for the academnic realm, transparent and free from the influence of advertising. Google's original "business plan" was to license their search engine to corporations. Obviously that did not work. Netscape had a similar plan for its Navigator web browser.

No doubt some of these "AI" companies believe they can license to companies as a viable business. Meanwhile, they may end up like Netscape.

If ads are and always were a viable "business model" then why do these companies try to pursue licensing first.

Perhaps some myopia is created by mesmerising effects of certain selected companies, e.g., Google, that have operated their "ads business" free from meaningful competition or regulation, leading to immense growth and market domination, the later maintained long-term by anticompetitive behaviour.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#140

Post by jsemrau »

imposterr wrote: post #27
duckkg5 wrote: post #16

No surprise here, but what a bummer that this is "The Way™" Just let me pay you $3-5/ month to never see an ad again. It's worth it to me since the service is actually decent.

You mean Perplexity Pro? That thing they tried and found that no one was willing to pay for cuz users say they want paid options but then jump boat to the free things always? https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/faq/what-is-perplexity-pro

I think we are getting there. Maybe it was a bit too early.
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