I switched from Google to Perplexity for research tasks six weeks ago and I want to be honest about what is better and what is worse

I do a lot of research as part of my job, market analysis, competitor tracking, background on topics I need to get up to speed on quickly. I had been using Google for all of it for years. Six weeks ago I started using Perplexity as my primary research tool.

What is genuinely better: getting a synthesised answer with sources attached rather than a list of links to evaluate. For topics where I need a structured overview quickly it is significantly faster. The citations mean I can verify what I am reading rather than just trusting the AI summary.

What is worse: for anything where I need to find a specific source or where I know the information exists somewhere specific, Google is still faster. Perplexity sometimes confidently cites sources that say something slightly different from what it claims they say. That has caught me out twice.

I am not here to tell you to switch. I am here to give an honest account because I find the all-or-nothing takes on both sides unhelpful.