It takes a lot of courage to use Google when searching online. Ask Microsoft pathopathicBrave and the many other seekers who tried to sneak in Google’s global market share reaches almost 90%. It takes a kick in the head to believe that Google would sell Chrome, the popular web browser.
It looks like AI search company Perplexity has guts and guts, but also a lot of headaches, as it not only wants to take on Google in online search, but proposed to buy Chrome for $34.5 billionwhat is $14.5 billion more than Perplexity is worth.
Aside from giving Perplexity access to billions of users overnight, Perplexity doesn’t really need Chrome. It already has its own AI-powered browser called Comet, and after using it for the past few weeks, I’m making it my default browser.
Comet is a Chromium-based, AI-powered browser that puts the Perplexity response engine at the heart of the experience.
Chromium is an open source browser standard from Google that allows anyone to create their own browser based on the Chromium code base. Browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Opera are based on Chromium. Building a Chromium browser ensures a robust online experience with regular security updates and interoperability with Chrome extensions.
So Comet is basically half the size of Chrome minus the Google integrations.
Here’s what Comet can do that Chrome can’t: Questions typed into Comet’s address bar generate Perplexity AI summaries with links to various resources. By highlighting the text and right-clicking, you will be presented with a puzzle-based search and summary. While watching a YouTube video, you can use Perplexity Assistant to summarize it and ask follow-up questions. The same summary function also applies to articles. (However, as a journalist and as someone who doesn’t mind it TikTok brainI read some articles. Comet also has agent competence. For example, I can ask Comet’s built-in AI assistant to analyze it. Winner of the Grand Archive deck and these cards are automatically added to my cart on TCGplayer, a separate marketplace for buying cards.
The power of artificial intelligence at the heart of Comet is changing the way I use the internet in small but important ways. AI can enrich an article about a political candidate, so I can ask questions about their policies and polling results. Or, if I’m buying a mechanical keyboard, I can open Perplexity Assistant and ask which switches on the market provide the best “hit” with a “creamy” feel. (Perplexity highly recommends Gateron Oil King switches.)
Can I do the same by just opening a separate ChatGPT tab? Sure. But since everything is integrated into the browser, I don’t have to spend time providing the AI chatbot with the necessary context. You can look at the screen I’m looking at and understand what I want to develop.
I often switch to Google Search because Google tends to index links based on recency.
Another weakness is the consistency of Perplexity agent skills. Last month, ChatGPT launched the ChatGPT Agent. This new mode in ChatGPT allows an AI to search and navigate for you. However, this takes time. For example, I asked the ChatGPT agent to find hotel rooms near the San Diego Convention Center on specific dates and at a specific price. It took 15 minutes of web browsing before the ChatGPT agent showed me any options. With Comet, Perplexity attempted to accomplish this task in just 30 seconds. The problem was that the hotel recommendations did not match the location or price I was looking for. You could of course go back and forth with Perplexity to fine-tune the focus, but that would take a long time.
In another test, I tried to recreate the Grand Archive deck I made the day before. I made a list of winning decks and asked Perplexity to determine how much it would cost to build the exact same deck and add those cards to my cart in TCGplayer. This time Perplexity crashed. Attempts to compile an accurate list continued, but did not lead to the switch to TCGplayer. They asked me if I was ready to continue, and I replied with a strong affirmative. Each time I wasted a lot of time thinking it would lead nowhere.
If perplexity works, great. But getting it to work can seem like child’s play.
However, it is still too early to give the comet a definitive assessment. The browser is still limited to Max users and many more updates are likely to come. Still, it gives a glimpse of what AI-powered web browsing will look like, and I hope Google does everything it can to defend its market share.
