AI search engine for developers

Conventional search engine systems typically depend on keyword matching, which may lead to limited accuracy and relevance of search results. 

In contrast, AI-powered site search engines surpass simple keyword matching by understanding the intent behind search queries, analyzing contextual information, and delivering more contextually relevant results.

In this article, we'll highlight the top AI search engines tailored for developers, offering viable alternatives to Google.

Phind 

Phind is an intelligent answer engine for developers. Focused on helping developers solve challenging problems, it uses generative AI to provide answers within seconds rather than hours. 

Connected to the Internet and, if desired, your codebase, Phind ensures context is always maintained.

Currently, the search engine provides three models, i.e., Phind, Phind Pro and GPT-4.

Pricing

Phind offers two paid subscription options: Phind Plus, priced at $10 per month, and Phind Pro, available for $20 monthly. 

Additionally, there's an option for an annual Pro plan priced at $200 per year.

Exa AI

Exa AI is an AI tool that offers AI chat conversation services and an API for web search. They provide custom GPTs for seamless interaction and a search engine built for AIs, enabling developers to filter the Internet's content with complex queries to bring the world's knowledge into their AI apps.

The company's mission is to organize all knowledge into an intelligent database, allowing searches based on meaning rather than just keywords.

Exa's landing page consists of 3 endpoints:

1-Search 

Exa AI leverages embeddings-based search to retrieve top-notch content from the Internet. Its primary interface for browsing or conducting searches includes:

• Neural (embeddings-based) or keyword search.
• The neural search feature consists of an auto prompt function, enabling converting any input into an Exa query.
• Users can use the contents field for any search to obtain clean, parsed text or intelligent, targeted highlights.

Moreover, users have the flexibility to customize their search results by specifying additional fields, such as:

• Autoprompt usage
• The desired number of results
• Start and end dates for crawling
• Start and end dates for published content
• Category Filtering
• Content type customization

2-Find similar

The "Find Similar" feature finds links most semantically similar to the input link.

3-Get contents

This endpoint processes document IDs acquired from the "/search" or "/findSimilar" endpoints, allowing users to retrieve clean, parsed HTML content for each document. It's important to note that each retrieved piece of content contributes towards the usage limits.

Pricing 

Exa provides three paid subscription options: The first tier, Wanderer, is priced at $100 monthly. 

The second tier, Wanderer+, is available at $250 per month. An enterprise plan is also tailored to individual usage requirements and offered through custom contracts.

Moreover, Exa extends discounts to startups and educational institutions, underscoring its commitment to assisting all those striving to deliver high-quality knowledge.

Wiseone's Ask Anything Feature

Ask Anything is a feature designed by Wiseone, an AI-powered browser extension that saves time, expands knowledge, and boosts productivity.

This feature integrates seamlessly with top search engines, such as Google or Bing, to provide unique and sourced answers directly on your favorite search engines without requiring users to navigate away from the search result page, saving valuable time and effort.

This proves especially beneficial for developers, as they can swiftly access code-related answers with just a click, bypassing the need to search multiple web pages.

Wiseone also provides additional features that give a comprehensive understanding of the content you are reading, making the AI tool a convenient alternative and offering an engaging experience that feels like having a companion assisting in every aspect of web searching and online reading.

Pricing 

Wiseone is a free tool, making the usage of "Ask Anything" at no cost.

How to get Wiseone

To enhance your web search and online reading experience, follow these simple steps to download Wiseone:

• Visit the Chrome Web Store and click 'Add to Chrome".
• Once the extension is added, create an account at https://app.wiseone.io/
• We recommend watching Wiseone's tutorial video. This brief yet insightful video presents how to use the tool and its features.

It's as easy as that!

Andisearch 

Andisearch is a conversational search with an intelligent assistant that's friendly and visual. Andisearch is considered a helpful tool that finds answers and information online and packages it up so it's easy to understand, in the same way as a good research assistant.

Andisearch uses generative AI and large language models (LLMs) combined with live data, intelligent algorithms, and semantic search technology which makes it like humans, combining language models with reasoning and common sense. This means it can think before it answers and doesn't make things up like other chatbots.

Andi Search can: 

• Answer your questions
• Find, summarize, and explain information
• Navigate and search the web

After Andisearch had answered my query about Python's ternary conditional operator, it provided an answer in textual format accompanied by relevant links to visit the answer's webpage, summarize, and explain the provided answer.

Pricing

Currently, there is no available information regarding the pricing, indicating that it is entirely free for the time being.

Cosine 

Cosine describes itself as an AI knowledge engine that understands codebases, providing answers to coding questions, explanations of code features, and suggestions for new code.

It supports 50+ coding languages, allowing developers to ask questions about their codebase, get explanations about any feature, and get suggestions about how to write new code.

How does it work? 

The tool combines large language models with embeddings to gain a better-than-human and contextual understanding of your codebase that you can query with natural language.

Cosine index/map the entire codebase using fine-tuned LLM, which was trained with proprietary synthetic data. As a result, the tool instantly understands what code snippets do rather than what it simply is.

All this means you can ask questions about your codebase conversationally as if you were asking a friend for help when you're stuck.

Pricing

Currently, pricing details are unavailable on the website, making it entirely accessible, which is fantastic for developers.

Codepilot

CodePilot.ai is a code search application designed for developers to find solutions from GitHub, Stack Overflow, and private code bases. It allows users to search multiple sources at once, filter results based on different criteria, and personalize developer profiles to rank results based on relevancy for the current project.

Bloop

bloop is designed from the ground up to support natural language searches. By using semantic code search and Large Language Models like GPT-4, bloop allows you to ask questions like:

• Is there a function that does X?
• How does API endpoint Y work?
• Show me how the backend and front end work together to achieve Z.

bloop is best at finding code and explaining it. Questions should always include 'where,' 'how,' or 'why'.

bloop, however, is still unreliable with the following tasks: 

• Writing code
• Modifying existing code
• Counting lines of code
• Providing exhaustive lists 
• Finding authors of code 
• Explaining how code has changed over time 
• Describing code test coverage 
• Reading issues
• Finding bugs

Bloop suggests that if an answer isn't immediately found, consider rephrasing the query.

Pricing

Bloop offers a free model and a paid monthly subscription priced at $20.

Final Thoughts

Users now have an unprecedented array of search engine options available, marking a significant shift in the landscape over the past few decades.

Today, AI search engines offer numerous credible alternatives to Google, giving users more choices than ever.

Generative AI is revolutionizing the process of uncovering precise and current information, opening up new avenues for discovery.