My experiments with Perplexity continue. This alternate search app takes a different approach to getting answers from the Internet. Rather than giving you a list of links to read, it reads the Internet and tries to give you an answer with footnotes going back to the links it reads. I think it’s a good idea, and Perplexity was early to this game. Google is now following suit to less effect, but I’m sure they’ll continue to work on it.

I recently got an email from Perplexity about a new feature called Perplexity Pages, where you can give it a prompt, and it will build a web page about a subject of interest to you. Just as an experiment, I had it create a page on woodworking hand planes. I fed it a few headings, and then it generated this page. The page uses the Perplexity method of giving you information with footnotes to the websites it’s reading. I fed it a few additional topics, and it generated more content. Then, I pressed “publish” with no further edits. The whole experiment took me five minutes to create.

The speed at which these web pages can be created is both impressive and, in a way, unsettling. If we can generate web pages this quickly, it’s only a matter of time before we face significant challenges in distinguishing reliable information from the vast sea of content on the Internet. In any case, I invite you to explore my five-minute hand plane website.