Part 2: Rounding out 2025: Your friendly guide to the new "search"

Dear Techies,

Welcome back to our special year-end series, Tech in 2025, Explained Simply!

Last week, we saw how AI can handle small projects for us. This week, let's tackle something you use every single day: searching online.

🐝 The Big Change: Your Search Bar Now Talks Back

Have you noticed that when you Google something now, you sometimes get a whole paragraph of an answer right at the top, instead of just a list of blue links? It can feel helpful, but also a bit confusing. Where did that answer come from?

This is AI search, and 2025 is the year it became the new normal. It's the biggest shift in search in over 20 years. Let's break it down.

🐝 The Core Idea: From From Librarian to Research Assistant

Think of the old search like asking a librarian for books on "car maintenance." They point you to the best 10 books (the blue links), and you have to read them yourself. The new AI search is like that librarian quickly reading all 10 books for you and then summarizing the answer in their own words, while showing you which books they used.

They've done the legwork and show you where they got the information.

You'll find this in:

• Google's "AI Overviews" (now built into every search)

• Microsoft Bing's "Copilot"

• Dedicated tools like Perplexity, designed from the ground up to give conversational, sourced answers.

🤷 So what? What does this change for me?

This is a powerful upgrade, but it means we need to use our brains a little differently.

• The Good: It's fantastic for complex, open-ended questions. Want to compare two things or understand a concept? The AI can synthesize information beautifully. Try asking: "What's the difference between a HIDA savings account and aa regular savings account in simple terms?"

• The New Rule: Think like a fact-checker. The AI is summarizing, so there's a tiny chance it could misunderstand or oversimplify. See its answer as a brilliant starting point, not the final word. Your new super habit is the double-check.

🎯 Your 5-Minute Mission: Try It & Double-Check It

Your mission is to experience this new search for yourself and learn the #1 skill for using it wisely: the double-check.

Your Mission: Have a conversation with your search bar.
We'll use Google for this, as it's the most common.

1. Go to google.com in your web browser (or try perplexity.ai for a pure AI search experience).

2. Ask a "compare" question. In the search box, type or paste the sample question in the box below:

3. Read the AI Answer. Look for the box at the very top of the results page that has a short, paragraph-style answer. Read it. Notice how it tries to give you a balanced summary right away.

4. Do the "Trust Check." This is the key step! Scroll down in that same AI answer box. At the bottom, you should see links that say "Sources" or show website names. Click on one of those links. This opens one of the actual websites the AI used. Skim it. Does the AI's summary seem to match what the website says?

Congratulations! You’ve just used AI search like a pro—leveraging its speed and verifying its work.

🐝 One Thing to Remember

AI Search is a brilliant research assistant, not an all-knowing oracle. Always peek at its sources.

Next week: We'll look at why all this smart tech needs so much energy and what that means for the planet (and your electricity bill).

Your Tech Partner,
Ijeoma Ndu, PhD

P.S. What did you ask the new Google or Perplexity? Did its answer surprise you? Hit reply and let me know—I test different questions all the time!

P.S.S. Did you know I wrote a book? Tech Savvy Starts Here is available on Amazon—a practical, engaging guide for families and educators helping kids build confidence with technology. Check it out here.

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🧠 Keep learning. | 💬 Keep questioning. | 💥 Keep growing.