Twelve Months of Using Both. Here Is What We Actually Do Now.
In August 2024, we wrote about switching from Google to Perplexity for our research workflows. That post was one of our most-read pieces of the year, and we have gotten more follow-up questions about it than almost anything else we have published.
The most common question: "Are you still using Perplexity a year later, or was it just a novelty?" The answer is yes, we are still using it, but the story has gotten more complicated. Both platforms have changed significantly. Perplexity got materially better. Google fought back hard. And the way we use each one has evolved into something we did not predict a year ago.
Here is the honest update.
A year ago, Perplexity was a search replacement. Now it is one layer in a fragmented research stack. That fragmentation is not a bug. It is where all of AI search is heading.
How Perplexity Evolved
The Perplexity of August 2025 is a meaningfully different product than what we reviewed a year ago. Three developments stand out.
Deep Research changed our workflow. Launched in February 2025, Deep Research is Perplexity's most intensive search mode. It spends significantly more time than Pro Search, consulting dozens of sources and producing research briefs that rival what a junior analyst would deliver in half a day. We use it for market analysis, competitive intelligence deep dives, and any research question where thoroughness matters more than speed. The quality improvement over standard Pro Search is substantial.
Pages turned research into content. Perplexity Pages, launched in May 2024, lets you transform any research thread into a formatted, shareable article with citations, images, and subheadings. We have started using it to produce first-draft research briefings for clients. The output needs editing, but as a starting point it saves hours compared to building a brief from scratch. The client gets a polished document with every claim linked to its source.
The Comet browser is an interesting bet. Perplexity launched its own browser, Comet, which went free in October 2025. It is a Chromium-based browser with a built-in AI assistant that can summarize pages, answer questions about what you are reading, and navigate on your behalf. We have tested it but not adopted it -- the assistant is useful but not compelling enough to switch from our current browser setup. Still, it signals where Perplexity is heading: not just a search engine, but an AI layer across the entire browsing experience.
The growth numbers tell the story. Perplexity's valuation jumped from $9 billion at the end of 2024 to $20 billion by September 2025. They are processing over 780 million queries per month, more than triple the volume from August 2024. This is not a niche tool anymore. It is becoming infrastructure.
How Google Fought Back
Google did not sit still while Perplexity ate into its research use case. The response was aggressive, and it changed the landscape.
AI Overviews became ubiquitous. Google rolled out AI-generated summaries at the top of search results across an expanding set of queries. According to Search Engine Land's analysis, AI Overview visibility peaked at just under 25% of queries in July 2025, though coverage pulled back to about 16% by November. The experience is uneven -- sometimes the AI Overview is genuinely helpful, sometimes it is shallow or inaccurate -- but it directly addresses the core Perplexity value proposition of getting an answer instead of a list of links.
AI Mode launched as a dedicated tab. Google introduced AI Mode as an interactive search experience where you can engage in back-and-forth dialogue about your query, powered by Gemini 2.5. This is Google's most direct response to Perplexity's conversational search model. It is genuinely useful for exploratory research, though it lacks Perplexity's citation discipline.
Commercial integration deepened. Ads alongside AI Overviews rose from about 3% of queries in January to roughly 40% by November 2025. Google is monetizing AI search aggressively, which affects the neutrality of results in ways that Perplexity does not have to contend with (yet).
Our Search Stack Today
After a year of using both platforms daily, here is exactly what we use each tool for. As we wrote about in our coverage of how AI is changing search, the days of one search tool for everything are over.
OUR SEARCH STACK -- August 2025 ======================================== PERPLEXITY (Primary research tool) - Competitive intelligence - Market sizing and analysis - Regulatory and compliance questions - Vendor evaluation and comparison - Technical due diligence - Client pre-call research - Any query where cited sources matter GOOGLE (Navigation and specifics) - Finding specific websites - Local business searches - Shopping and product comparisons - Image search - Maps and directions - Site-specific searches (site:domain.com) CLAUDE (Analysis and creation) - Processing research into deliverables - Document analysis and summarization - Writing proposals and reports - Building agents and integrations - Code generation and development PERPLEXITY + CLAUDE (Combined workflow) - Research with Perplexity, build with Claude - Competitive analysis > strategy deck - Market research > financial model - Vendor scan > recommendation report
The Verdict: Use Both, for Different Things
A year ago, we framed this as Perplexity versus Google. That framing was too simple. The real story is that AI search is fragmenting, and the businesses that adapt to using multiple tools for different purposes will outperform those clinging to a single search engine for everything.
Perplexity wins on research. Any time you need a synthesized, cited answer to a complex question, Perplexity is the better tool. The citation system, Deep Research mode, and Pro Search depth are unmatched. Google AI Overviews are getting better, but they still lack the citation rigor and depth that Perplexity provides.
Google wins on navigation and commerce. Finding a specific website, looking up a local business, comparing products, getting directions -- Google is still the best tool for queries where you know roughly what you are looking for and need to get there. The integration with Maps, Shopping, and the broader Google ecosystem gives it advantages Perplexity cannot replicate.
Neither replaces Claude for analysis. Search tools find information. Claude processes it. That distinction has only become clearer over the past year. Our full AI platform comparison covers this in depth, but the short version is: Perplexity and Google are input tools. Claude is the output tool. They serve different stages of the same workflow.
The winner of the search wars will not be the platform that replaces all others. It will be the platform that claims the highest-value slice of the research workflow. Perplexity is winning that fight for now.
What This Means for Your Business
If your team is still doing all research through Google, you are leaving productivity on the table. The research tasks that take 30 to 45 minutes with Google take 5 to 10 minutes with Perplexity. Over the course of a month, that compounds into days of recovered time.
Our recommendation for most businesses has not changed much since last year: get Perplexity Pro at minimum. If your team handles sensitive data, move to Enterprise for the data privacy guarantee. Pair it with Claude for analysis and creation. Keep Google for navigation and commerce.
The AI search landscape will continue fragmenting. More specialized tools will emerge. The businesses that build the muscle now -- learning to use different tools for different query types -- will adapt faster as the landscape evolves. The businesses that wait for one tool to do everything will wait forever.
We said a year ago that Perplexity was replacing Google for us. The more accurate statement today is that Perplexity replaced Google for research, Google retained its role for navigation, and Claude became the essential third piece that turns research into action. That three-tool stack is what we recommend to every client, and after a year of daily use, we are more confident in it than ever.