Software:You.com

From HandWiki

You.com is an artificial intelligence search startup that has pivoted away from consumer search engine operations toward business-focused AI tools and APIs.[1][2]

The company was founded in 2020 by Richard Socher,[3][4] the former Chief Scientist at Salesforce and a prominent Natural Language Processing researcher with over 220,000 citations,[5] and Bryan McCann,[6][7] a former Lead Research Scientist in NLP at Salesforce.

History

Following its 2020 founding, You.com opened its public beta on November 9, 2021,[8] and received $20 million in funding led by Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff.[6][9] Other investors include Breyer Capital, Sound Ventures, and Day One Ventures.[10]

The domain You.com was initially purchased in 1996 by Benioff.[11] Benioff invested in You.com and transferred ownership of the You.com domain name to the company.[10]

In July 2022, You.com announced its $25 million Series A funding round led by Radical Ventures[12] with participation from Time Ventures, Breyer Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Day One Ventures.[13]

In September 2024, You.com raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Georgian.[14] In September 2025, You.com raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Cox Enterprises at a $1.5 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status.[1]

Features

On December 23, 2022, You.com was the first search engine to launch a ChatGPT-style chatbot with live web results alongside its responses.[15][16][17] Initially known as YouChat,[18] the chatbot was primarily based on the GPT-3.5 large language model and could answer questions, suggest ideas,[19] translate text,[20] summarize articles, compose emails, and write code snippets, while staying up-to-date with current events [17] and citing sources. Several further versions of YouChat were released. The second version, called YouChat 2.0, was released on February 7, 2023,[21][22] incorporated improved conversational AI[23] and community-built applications by blending a large language model named C-A-L (Chat, Apps, and Links).[23][18] This update enabled YouChat to provide results in various formats, such as charts,[24] photos,[25] videos, tables, graphs, text or code, so users can find answers without leaving the search results page. YouChat 3.0, unveiled on May 4, 2023,[26] combined chat functionality with results from Reddit, TikTok, Stack Overflow and Wikipedia.

YouPro

On June 21, 2023, You.com introduced YouPro, a paid subscription.[27] Both free and paid versions provide access to large language models connected to the internet with citation capabilities.[28]

Reception

You.com was named one of Time's "The Best Inventions of 2022."[29][30]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zaveri, Paayal (September 3, 2025). "You.com Becomes a Unicorn, Shifts Away From Search Engine Plans". Bloomberg News. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-03/you-com-becomes-a-unicorn-shifts-away-from-search-engine-plans. 
  2. ↑ Pierce, David (September 25, 2023). "The AI assistant revolution is more than 50 years in the making". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/23888985/ai-assistant-you-chatgpt-bard-siri-alexa-vergecast-podcast. 
  3. ↑ Miller, Ron. "You.com takes aim at Google and Microsoft with multimodal chat search". https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/15/you-com-takes-aim-at-google-and-microsoft-with-multimodal-chat-search/. 
  4. ↑ Miller, Ron (2020-12-08). "Former Salesforce chief scientist announces new search engine to take on Google" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/08/former-salesforce-chief-scientist-announces-new-search-engine-to-take-on-google/. 
  5. ↑ "Google Scholar, Richard Socher". https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=search_authors&hl=en&mauthors=label:natural_language_processing. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Wiggers, Kyle (2021-11-09). "AI-driven search engine You.com takes on Google with $20M". https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/09/ai-driven-search-engine-you-com-takes-on-google-with-20m/. 
  7. ↑ "Bryan McCann". https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QVj22CwAAAAJ. 
  8. ↑ Robertson, Adi (2021-11-09). "You.com wants to remake the search engine". https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/9/22770614/you-salesforce-startup-search-engine-privacy-information-control. 
  9. ↑ Baranouski, Artsiom (2024-01-30). "Top 10 Salesforce SPQ Alternatives for the North American Market" (in en). https://aranouski.medium.com/top-10-salesforce-spq-alternatives-for-the-north-american-market-f5083304c624. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Paresh, Dave (November 9, 2021). "Salesforce CEO Benioff invests in search engine startup You.com". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/technology/salesforce-ceo-benioff-invests-search-engine-startup-youcom-2021-11-09/. 
  11. ↑ Pardes, Arielle (March 31, 2023). "Search Has Its Goliath. Could Richard Socher Be Its David?". The Information. https://www.theinformation.com/articles/search-has-its-goliath-could-richard-socher-be-its-david?rc=jehvjn. 
  12. ↑ Primack, Dan (July 14, 2022). "You.com raises $25 million to challenge Google's search dominance". Axios. https://www.axios.com/2022/07/14/youcom-raises-25-million-to-challenge-googles-search-dominance. 
  13. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (July 14, 2022). "You raises $25M to fuel its AI-powered search engine". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/14/you-com-raises-25m-to-fuel-its-ai-powered-search-engine/. 
  14. ↑ Coldewey, Devin (2024-09-04). "With $50M in new funding, You.com thinks its AI can beat Google on hard questions" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/04/you-com-refocuses-from-ai-search-to-deeper-productivity-agents-with-new-50m-round/. 
  15. ↑ Kahn, Imad (December 23, 2022). "Search Engine You.com Launches ChatGPT-Style Chatbot, But Don't Trust It Fully Yet". CNET. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/search-engine-you-com-launches-chatgpt-style-chatbot/. 
  16. ↑ Kulp, Patrick (January 24, 2024). "How this early LLM researcher is taking on ChatGPT with his own search engine". Tech Brew. https://www.emergingtechbrew.com/stories/2024/01/24/richard-socher-you-dot-com-search. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Hachman, Mark. "You.com's AI-infused Google rival provides a tantalizing glimpse of the future". https://www.pcworld.com/article/1448609/is-you-com-a-better-google.html. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Eliaçık, Eray. "You.com's AI-powered features are already in use, unlike Google". https://dataconomy.com/2023/02/you-com-ai-chatbot-ai-image-generator-how/. 
  19. ↑ You.com (May 10, 2023). "Introducing YouChat — The AI Search Assistant that Lives in Your Search Engine". https://blog.you.com/introducing-youchat-the-ai-search-assistant-that-lives-in-your-search-engine-eff7badcd655. 
  20. ↑ Roth, Emma. "Meet the companies trying to keep up with ChatGPT". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/5/23599209/companies-keep-up-chatgpt-ai-chatbots. 
  21. ↑ You.com (May 10, 2023). "Introducing YouChat 2.0 — Unlock the Power of AI with the Search Assistant that Works for You". https://blog.you.com/introducing-youchat-2-0-unlock-the-power-of-ai-with-the-search-assistant-that-works-for-you-4b18aa3007bf. 
  22. ↑ Nuñez, Michael. "VentureBeat Q&A: Richard Socher, cofounder and CEO of You.com, says Google is facing a classic innovator's dilemma". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/ai/richard-socher-you-com-says-google-facing-classic-innovators-dilemma/. 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Nuñez, Michael. "You.com challenges Google, Microsoft with launch of 'multimodal conversational AI' in search". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/ai/you-com-challenges-google-microsoft-launch-multimodal-conversational-ai-search/. 
  24. ↑ Özergin, Özgürcan. "How to use You.com: YouChat, YouImagine, and more". TechBriefly. https://techbriefly.com/2023/02/24/how-to-use-you-com-youchat-youimagine/. 
  25. ↑ Deutscher, Maria. "You.com debuts multimodal AI chatbot for search". SiliconANGLE. https://siliconangle.com/2023/02/15/com-debuts-multimodal-ai-chatbot-search/. 
  26. ↑ "YouChat 3.0 is here — Experience the Ultimate Chat Search.". https://about.you.com/youchat-3-0-is-here-experience-the-ultimate-chat-search-6862c41166cc/. 
  27. ↑ Press, Gil (June 21, 2023). "You.com Launches Subscription Service For Cutting-Edge Generative AI Search Chatbot". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2023/06/21/youcom-launches-subscription-service-for-cutting-edge-generative-ai-search-chatbot/?sh=5bcea2e06a33. 
  28. ↑ Oritz, Sabrina (March 20, 2024). "YouPro lets me access every popular premium AI chatbot for $20/month - but there's a catch". ZDNET. https://www.zdnet.com/article/youpro-lets-me-access-every-popular-premium-ai-chatbot-for-20month-but-theres-a-catch/. 
  29. ↑ "The Best Inventions of 2022". Time. https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2022/6228808/. Retrieved April 7, 2024. 
  30. ↑ Mullich, Joe (November 10, 2022). "Ad-free Search You.com". Time. https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2022/6228799/you-com/. 

Template:Generative AI chatbots



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:You.com&oldid=3961282"