It looks like Naver is trying to refocus their AI efforts. Two notices were posted this week alerting users to the fact that Clova X (네이버 클로바X) and Cue (네이버 큐) are shutting down as independent services.
This is not that different from asking the same question directly in a Clova X chat:
It does seem like I get fewer search results with AI included result summaries on Naver than I do on Google. I think Naver is being more conservative and cautious with what types of queries are permitted to return AI results. Maybe if they don't have enough corresponding high quality results in a baisc Naver search, it stays away and just gives basic search results. If Cue doesn't know me, presumably the front-facing AI Briefing tech doesn't. Anyway Naver has already said that AI Briefings would be limited to certain areas and result types. Mostly for content that's already in the Naver ecosystem, like compiling reviews for restaurants on Naver Maps for example.
Yet interestingly, following that advice, I did trigger an AI Briefing for myself by searching just for "10wontips":
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| Naver's Clova X and Cue services logos |
Background
Clova X was basically Naver's answer to ChatGPT, based on Naver's own HyperClova AI model. You could have standalone chats with it and ask it to all sorts of writing tasks, similar to ChatGPT.
I looked at some examples of chatting with Clova X a few years ago:
Cue was more closely associated with Naver Search and functioned more like Perplexity in that it was geared more towards parsing the web and summarizing the results into quick shot answers. No surprise maybe that Cue was accessible right alongside Naver Search as a sort of option for searching:
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| Specific button beside the main Naver search bar for initiating a Cue (AI) search |
But the landscape has moved on and it's essentially been integrated now into Naver's "AI Briefing" which returns results for certain Naver Searches in a special AI box above the regular search results, like how Google does its AI Mode now for some searches.
There seemed like a lot of overlap with these as they were both marketed as being your personal assistant that could help you with shopping, reservations, etc. See their press release NAVER Unveils an Advanced Generative AI Search Service “Cue:” for example.
One last look at Clova X and Cue
With the integration of the AI Briefing into Naver Search, some searches pull in their AI results anyway. For example, here's a sample Naver search about how to install Linux on a PC. Notice that it returns an AI summary set of instrucctions:
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| Naver search for Linux installation tips, returning results including an AI Briefing |
This is not that different from asking the same question directly in a Clova X chat:
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| Same question posed in a Clova X chat |
Not bad for those types of questions, but how about real world knowledge of the more obscure kind.
Let's say we wanted to find out about a blog called 10wontips.
Here's the Clova X response, which clearly shows it has no clue who I am and is just hallucinating plausible responses:
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| Clova X hallucinating a response about my blog |
I know that is a hallucination because I have never registered the 10wontips.com domain. I'm happy to sit here on free Blogspot.
Of course at this point I realized that it doesn't include web search functionality by default. So repeating the question in web search mode returned a much better response:
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| Clova X in web search mode correctly identifying this blog |
"10wontips" 블로그는 주로 한국의 IT 관련 정보와 생활 팁을 다루는 블로그로 보입니다. 다음은 이 블로그에 대한 몇 가지 주요 정보입니다:블로그 주제: 이 블로그는 기술 팁과 한국 사회의 다양한 주제를 다루며, 특히 한국 IT 업계의 소식을 해외 사용자를 대상으로 영어로 포스팅합니다12.포스팅 스타일: "10원팁"이라는 타이틀을 가지고 있으며, 대한민국의 IT 정보를 신속하게 전달하는 것으로 알려져 있습니다. 또한, 한국의 포털 사이트에서 특정 기념일을 사용자들에게 어떻게 알리는지에 대한 포스트도 작성하며, 이러한 기념일에도 빠짐없이 포스팅을 발행하는 등 꾸준히 활동하는 블로거로 평가받고 있습니다2.콘텐츠 예시: 예를 들어, 에어컨 제습 모드의 전기 요금 절약 방법과 같은 실용적인 팁을 제공하기도 합니다3.이 블로그는 한국어로 작성된 다양한 생활 팁과 IT 관련 정보를 영어로 번역하여 제공하는 역할을 하고 있으며, 특히 해외 사용자들이 한국 문화와 기술 동향에 쉽게 접근할 수 있도록 돕는 중요한 플랫폼으로 기능하고 있습니다.더 자세한 내용을 확인하려면 10wontips 블로그 링크를 방문하거나, 네이버에서 "10wontips"를 검색하여 추가 정보를 찾아보실 수 있습니다.
I'm a little disappointed that what I'm mostly known for by AIs is all those posts I used to do about special logo doodles on holidays. Guess that shows how little value most of my "tips" have. But hey you get what you pay for and at 10 won, what do you expect?
I could be satisfied with a result like that. But of course this direct access to Clova X is being retired. Which might not be so great after all, since take a look at this:
Putting the same search query directly into Naver Search returns some mostly garbage results. One guy's blog mentioning my blog (thank you to Take Out IT for the shoutout) but then a bunch of unrelated junk. Disappointing.
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| Searching (in Korean) for "tell me about the blog 10wontips" returns poor results |
You can see also that it did not include an AI Briefing result too. I think I can see why: when I go to the (still available as of this writing) standalone site for Naver Cue, it doesn't seem to know me either:
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| Same query in Cue returns no results |
It does seem like I get fewer search results with AI included result summaries on Naver than I do on Google. I think Naver is being more conservative and cautious with what types of queries are permitted to return AI results. Maybe if they don't have enough corresponding high quality results in a baisc Naver search, it stays away and just gives basic search results. If Cue doesn't know me, presumably the front-facing AI Briefing tech doesn't. Anyway Naver has already said that AI Briefings would be limited to certain areas and result types. Mostly for content that's already in the Naver ecosystem, like compiling reviews for restaurants on Naver Maps for example.
These seem to be becomig more and more popular though:
Its AI Briefing feature, which condenses information into quick summaries, now accounts for over 20 percent of all Naver queries.
So this is a case where a basic Naver search, using basic search terms rather than question queries, produces better results:
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| Basic search for "10wontips blog" returns good results but no AI Briefing |
Yet interestingly, following that advice, I did trigger an AI Briefing for myself by searching just for "10wontips":
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| Searching "10wontips" alone, in quotes, activated the AI Briefing feature with accurate into |
And that result look pretty good and accurate, pulling in content that is already indexed in Naver Search:
AI 브리핑실험 단계로 정확하지 않을 수 있어요.10wontips는 ‘10원 Tips(10원팁)’라는 이름의 블로그/블로그스팟 계정으로, 한국의 IT·생활 정보와 유용한 팁을 영어로 공유하는 채널로 확인됩니다.블로그는 블로거스팟(10wontips.blogspot.com)에서 운영되며, 주차 앱 ‘모두의주차장’ 사용법, AI·AI 관련 소식, 한국 포털의 기념일 안내 등 다양한 주제를 다룹니다.블로그/계정 개요블로그는 10원팁 블로그(10원 Tips) 로 소개되며, 해외 사용자(영어로) 대상 IT 소식을 빠르게 전달한다고 설명합니다.블로그스팟 계정은 10원 Tips(@10wontips.bsky.social) 로 운영되며, 한국·기술 관련 팁을 공유합니다.주요 콘텐츠 예시‘모두의주차장’ 앱에서 주차장 위치·요금 확인 및 주차 패스 구매 흐름을 스크린샷과 함께 안내한 글이 게시되었습니다.블로그는 Naver Mail 비밀번호 업데이트, Naver Plus 멤버십 할인, AI 관련 뉴스 등 생활·IT 팁을 정리한 게시물도 보유합니다.다른 플랫폼에서의 활동Mastodon에도 ‘@10wontips’ 계정이 있으며, 블로그 글과 한국·기술 관련 콘텐츠를 공유한다고 설명합니다.X(트위터) 에도 ‘@10wontips’ 계정이 존재하지만, 제공된 검색 결과에는 본문 내용이 확인되지 않습니다.
One last chance to try Clova X and Cue
If you want to try them out yourself, you still have some time. Both of these services will shut down as standalone sites on April 9, 2026.
Before then, try them here:
Note that you'll need to log-in with a Naver account to use them.
So long, Clova X. You were a fun project, but I guess in the end, ChatGPT is still dominating Korean AI usage so maybe you were just too late to the game. I myself like the AI Briefing results and I also like Google's AI Mode results too.
And if you want to play around with Korean AI models, you can still try Wrtn (뤼튼) or A.dot (에이닷) both of which gives access to various models including the Korean AX model.
Sources:
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