Perplexity Didn't Replace Search. It Replaced the First Pass.

People frame Perplexity as a Google killer. It isn't for me -- it's a triage layer. I ask it the question, read the inline sources, then open the one that matters.

The danger is the 'pro' models wandering off on a follow-up, and the occasional citation to a page that's since been deleted. So I never quote it; I quote what it pointed to.

For a fact I can check, it's faster than scanning results. For anything I'll publish, it's a pointer, not a source.

Search isn't dead. The first pass just got a lot shorter, and the verification step got more important, not less.