6 Advantages of Google Bard

Bard is Google's answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT.Unfortunately, initial reception to the chatbot was modest, considering the tool made a factual error in its first demo.

However, now that the beta is here and open to the public, Bard has shown some promising features that could give ChatGPT a hard time.We took Bard for a spin and listed all the great ways Bard can be of help to you besides being just another generative AI chatbot.

1. User Interface

Google's "Material Design" philosophy revolves around smooth animations, pleasant colors, and an overall simple interface.This philosophy carries over to Bard's interface as well.You can quickly switch between dark and light modes, access a helpful FAQ section, and view your previous activity.

Compared with ChatGPT and Bing Chat, its user interface is very simple.After Bard outputs the response, you can export it to Google Docs or Gmail.This is especially helpful if you want to use Bard for work, as it saves you the trouble of copying and pasting everything.

Then, there's a handy Google It button that you can use to directly access Google Search.You can use this feature to double-check the information in Bard's replies, which is not available in the free version of ChatGPT.

2. View other drafts

Another clever design trick is the ability to view other drafts, something we haven't seen in other AI chatbots yet.Bard automatically generates at least three responses to each prompt and displays the one it thinks is the best.However, you can take a quick look at the other drafts and read them thoroughly to decide which response is better.

Depending on the complexity of the prompt, other drafts may be quite different.You may want to check out other drafts if you're looking for specific information or a certain style of writing.

So, for three replies to a prompt, you can combine multiple together to produce the reply you're looking for, as well.This is faster than rewriting the hint with more specific requirements.

3. Audio input

You can find some workarounds to control ChatGPT with your voice, but there is no native way to do so.This is one of the few advantages Bard has over ChatGPT.You can quickly tap the microphone button in the text field to type a prompt with your voice.It works similar to Google Keyboard's dictation feature on Android phones.

This is also similar to the voice search feature in Google Search.Since Bud itself has a built-in Google search button, it does a good job of replicating that functionality.This might be more useful on your phone than on your desktop or laptop, but it's still a solid option.

4. Internet access

Bud is free, and Google has it connected to the Internet on the go.This means that, when necessary, Bud will access the web for you and pull relevant information.This is very different from ChatGPT, which only connects to the internet if you buy a $20/month subscription and use GPT-4.

Google has no limit to the number of tips you can give Bard, which means you can use it (and its internet browsing capabilities) as much as you want.And, more importantly, it doesn't have a message deadline like ChatGPT -- so far, it can only respond with messages until September 2021.

So Bard is a competitor to Perplexity AI, which is more of a generative AI-powered search engine because it has access to the web.

5. Google search results

Google search is the most used search engine in the world because of its high quality results.Users do end up finding what they're looking for.So another way that Bard outperforms all other competitors (including Bing Chat, which is not a direct competitor of this product) is by responding based on Google search results.

Bard's text generation quality is not much better than ChatGPT overall.However, it pulls information from a website's ranking on Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), making its information from the web more credible.

In other words, with Bard, you get Google's high-quality web indexing and ranking features, plus a chatbot that summarizes the information for you.

6. Position Sensitivity

One of the reasons Google Search is so good is that its results are relevant to your location and context.So if you look for "hotels near me" in Amsterdam, you won't get hotel recommendations in San Francisco.

The same is true for Bud.When you give it access to your location, it tailors its response accordingly to give you exactly what you're looking for.This suggests that Bard understands the context of your prompt better (though not in all cases).

For example, when you ask Bard for a link to a product, it gives you a link to a store in your country.While this feature is also available in Bing Chat, it is based on Bing search results.Then, Bing chat is not as well-crafted as Bard's response to this type of query (Bing chat mostly only gives two options to choose from).

Google played well with Bard

By packing things like internet access, audio input, and location sensitivity into an AI-powered chatbot with a great user interface, Google appears to be giving its competitors a good chance.Perhaps Google's biggest advantage right now is that Bard is free and unlimited.

Judging from how Google monetized search without charging users anything directly, Google is likely to find a creative way around monetization this time as well.This would again be the opposite of what competitors like OpenAI do: charge a simple monthly fee to manage costs.