ChatGPT Atlas browser is still like a Google search with extra steps

This week, OpenAI launched for the first time The long-rumored AI browser He aims to put his chatbot at the center of the Internet. The browser, called ChatGPT Atlas, enters a space already occupied by Comet Perplexity and Google Gemini in Chrome. OpenAI is likely betting that putting ChatGPT front and center is enough to attract users, but the overall experience is poor compared to competitors so far.

the Chromium-based ChatGPT atlas – Currently exclusive to macOS, although versions for other platforms are promised – and comes with a simple interface. On the left side of the window, you’ll find a collapsible tab containing your ChatGPT history. In the middle is your URL bar, which also lets you search directly using ChatGPT. On the right is the “Ask ChatGPT” button, which you can tap to chat specifically about whatever website you’re currently browsing. For ChatGPT Plus, Business, and Pro members, there is also an “Agent Mode” that can complete tasks such as adding items to your online shopping cart.

The ChatGPT Atlas home screen displays suggestions to get started, such as “Find the best restaurants near me.” Over time, it populated with some recommendations based on what I searched for in the browser, though it wasn’t always clear how — the browser showed me a suggested search for Halloween costume recommendations after I asked ChatGPT for ideas multiple times, but it never showed anything related to restaurants despite me doing multiple searches for them. In both cases, I found myself missing the option to view daily news and weather that I can find on the Microsoft Edge home page, or the Perplexity Comet browser’s customizable “Discover” page that contains the latest news, even if all of its excerpts are AI-generated (which It raises a bunch of questions).

One time for you He does If you start with ChatGPT Atlas, the immediately obvious problem is that ChatGPT simply doesn’t feel like a proper gateway to the web. When you first type a query, you’ll typically receive an AI-generated response from ChatGPT, and then you can choose to do things like turn your query into a classic web search with a list of relevant blue links, similar to a classic Google search. But the results are not always relevant. When I searched for “news near me,” for example, ChatGPT provided an AI response with stories relevant to my area. But the search results page gave me links to local San Francisco Bay Area news sites; Little Rock, Arkansas; Salt Lake City, Utah; And other places where I don’t live.

Like Google, ChatGPT Atlas will display a map if you search for a business or tourist attraction in a specific area, along with a brief description of each place, its hours of operation, price range, and ratings. But you can’t click on reviews or even see where they come from. This puts OpenAI at a disadvantage compared to Comet, for example, which features TripAdvisor integration, allowing you to view more detailed location information, photos, and AI-summarized reviews.

Searches for other topics, such as “how to add fertilizer to an orchid” or “best restaurants in Las Vegas,” returned more relevant results across the web. But ChatGPT Atlas will only show you 10 links per query, with no option to include results beyond that. When you enter a new question in the same chat, ChatGPT Atlas will aggregate the results, allowing you to scroll up and down the page to see all the links relevant to your chat. The division between topics isn’t easy to see, as ChatGPT Atlas divides it with a barely visible gray line and text explaining what you searched for.

OpenAI will also save your searches in the same place as ChatGPT conversations, which can quickly get things messy if you want to revisit certain conversations from the chatbot’s standalone app. The limited search experience is probably why ChatGPT Atlas includes a link to Google in the top right corner of every search results page.

In addition to the new web search tab, ChatGPT Atlas displays options to search for images, videos, and news stories. There’s also a Browser Memories feature within ChatGPT Atlas, which personalizes chat replies and suggestions based on your recent queries. ChatGPT Atlas can rearrange and close tabs for you too, With the ability to collect tabs on the road.

Of course, the big promise of AI browsers isn’t just that they’ll let you find things online, but that they can help contextualize and navigate whatever you’re searching for. When you land on a web page using ChatGPT Atlas, you can highlight and right-click text to ask ChatGPT for more information about a specific snippet. You can also open Ask ChatGPT The tab in the upper-right side of the browser to ask questions about what you’re reading, or to view related information without having to open another tab. It’s basically a ChatGPT-flavored version of Gemini in Chrome and Perplexity’s AI assistant in Comet, and after a bit of early testing, it seems to work, too.

Agent mode for paid users goes a step further and can perform tasks on your behalf, such as setting appointments, booking trips, or helping you complete a purchase. However, it will do so a bit slowly. I’ve found that you have to manually select the “Proxy Mode” button before placing your order; Otherwise, ChatGPT Atlas will say that it cannot complete the task.

For my first order, I asked ChatGPT Atlas to fill my Amazon shopping cart with items based on my recent browsing history, and the chatbot took a total of 10 minutes to add just three items. I watched as ChatGPT Atlas navigated the Amazon interface and talked about various issues. “It looks like I opened a new tab, but it’s still showing ‘about:blank’, which means the page hasn’t fully loaded. I’ll give it time,” ChatGPT wrote to itself at one point. Meanwhile, it took Comet about two minutes to add three items to my cart — still not super fast, but more reasonable.

But ChatGPT Atlas managed to compose and send an email directly in Gmail in about 30 seconds, and also created a Google Calendar event for me at the same time. She also searched for the best restaurants near me and prepared to book an appointment at a restaurant within a few minutes, but she stumbled when I asked her to schedule a reservation for “next Friday.” ChatGPT Atlas has scheduled it for Friday instead.

Given the options already available, ChatGPT Atlas is a somewhat disappointing start for a company that wants to create a series of interconnected applications that can eventually Become an artificial intelligence operating system. The company has Applications that have already been launched Within ChatGPT that works directly with services like Zillow, Spotify, and Canva, as well as a method To purchase products From Walmart and Etsy while using a chatbot, none of which require a dedicated browser. AI may be the future of search, but ChatGPT Atlas still needs a lot of work if OpenAI wants to move people away from traditional browsers like Chrome.