How do Perplexity’s focus modes improve your search results?

Perplexity’s Focus Mode lets you target specific types of sources so you can get more relevant answers. Instead of searching the entire web by default, you can tell Perplexity to concentrate on a particular domain of content. For example, Academic Focus will draw answers only from scholarly publications, while Social Focus pulls insights from forums and social media discussions. This is extremely useful when you want to filter out noise and get answers from the context that matters most to your question.

Perplexity six Focus modes

Perplexity currently offers six Focus modes, each tailored to a different need:

• Web – the default, broad search across the entire internet.

• Academic – uses scholarly articles and journals for research-backed answers.

• Social – looks at social media, forums, and discussion boards to gauge real-time opinions and trends.

• Video – analyzes content from video platforms (like YouTube), giving you summaries and key points from videos.

• Writing – geared toward creative and coding tasks, helping with content generation or programming queries.

• Math – taps into Wolfram Alpha for calculations and data analysis.

Using a focus mode is simple: just click the “Focus” button and choose the category that fits your query. For instance, if you’re researching a medical study, Academic Focus will surface peer-reviewed papers, whereas Social Focus might be better to see public sentiment about a new product. By honing in on a source type, Perplexity can provide more precise, context-appropriate answers without you needing to wade through unrelated information. This feature essentially acts like a smart filter, making your searches more targeted and effective.

The next time you search on Perplexity, try switching to a focus mode that matches your query – you’ll likely get a sharper answer with far less noise. Give it a go and see the difference in relevance and depth.

by Dr. Hernani Costa