Felo

Felo is an AI search engine built by a team in Japan, and its basic shape is familiar from Perplexity: you ask a question, it searches the web and writes an answer with numbered sources. What sets it apart is cross-language search. Ask in Chinese, and it can go through English and Japanese sources as well, then write the conclusion back in Chinese.

For non-English speakers that matters. A lot of first-hand technical, academic and overseas-market information only exists in English, and searching in your own language rarely surfaces it. Felo does the whole “translate the keywords, search in another language, translate the answer back” routine for you.

Its other trait is pushing search results toward a finished product: a mind map or a slide deck draft with one click. Neither is polished, but if you want to get the outline of a topic quickly, it beats starting from a blank page. Overall it is a capable search tool with a couple of distinctive features, though its core answering quality is not far ahead of its peers.

Key features

• Cited answers: it summarises what it finds with numbered references on each point, linking to the original pages.
• Cross-language search: ask in your own language, have it search sources in others, and get the answer in the language you asked in.
• Mind maps: turns the results of a search into a hierarchical map so you can see how a topic is structured.
• Slide generation: drafts a presentation from the search content that you can export and edit.
• Follow-up questions: keep asking in the same thread and it searches again with the earlier context.

How to use

1. Open the Felo website; you can try searching without an account, and signing in keeps your history.
2. Ask in full sentences. If you want foreign-language sources, say so in the question, for example that English or Japanese sources are preferred.
3. Watch the reference numbers as you read, and open the originals for any conclusion that matters.
4. When you need to organise your thinking or present, generate a mind map or slides from the results page and edit from there.

Best for

• Finding first-hand sources in other languages without translating keywords yourself.
• Getting oriented in an unfamiliar topic: see the structure in a mind map, then decide where to dig.
• Preparing an internal talk: turn research directly into a slide draft and skip some layout work.
• Everyday fact lookups, as a general AI search engine with citations you can check.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

• Cross-language search is a genuine differentiator, especially useful for researching overseas information.
• Results convert straight into mind maps and slides, so the path from research to output is short.
• The free tier covers light everyday use.

Limitations

• Core answer quality is not clearly better than Perplexity and similar tools.
• Generated slides and mind maps are rough and only work as first drafts.
• Like every AI search tool, it sometimes cites mediocre pages; conclusions still need checking.
• Coverage of local Chinese-language sources trails domestic Chinese AI search products.