AI startup Perplexity has launched Comet, a new AI-powered web browser aiming to challenge Google. Featuring an integrated 'Comet Assistant', it promises to automate tasks and make browsing conversational. But is it ready for primetime?
The long-standing battle for browser dominance, once fought over speed and features, has a new front: artificial intelligence. In this escalating conflict, AI startup Perplexity has fired a significant shot, launching its first-ever web browser, Comet. This move marks the company's most direct and ambitious attempt yet to dethrone Google not just in search, but in how we access and interact with the entire web.
The introduction of an AI-native browser signals a potential shift in our relationship with the internet, moving from a static, search-and-click model to a dynamic, conversational experience. But is Comet the vessel that will carry us into this new era, or another promising piece of tech that struggles to break the habits of millions?
Comet is more than just a new shell for the internet; it's a browser built from the ground up with an AI "thought partner" at its core. It integrates Perplexity's well-regarded AI search engine as the default, providing users with AI-generated summaries instead of a simple list of links. The company's vision is clear: to create a more fluid and intuitive web experience.
"Comet transforms entire browsing sessions into single, seamless interactions, collapsing complex workflows into fluid conversations," the company stated in a blog post. This philosophy is embodied in its headline feature, the Comet Assistant.
The star of the show is the Comet Assistant, an AI agent that resides within a sidecar in the browser. This assistant is designed to understand the context of what you're doing and automate routine tasks. It can see the content of your current webpage, allowing it to summarize articles, YouTube videos, and even your emails or calendar events without you needing to copy and paste information into a separate window.
For example, you can have a webpage open and ask the assistant questions about its content, and it will answer based on what's on your screen.
This strategic integration is central to Perplexity's goals. CEO Aravind Srinivas said in March that his goal with Comet was to “develop an operating system with which you can do almost everything.” By making the browser the central hub of a user's activity, Srinivas hopes to achieve what he called “infinite retention” in June, which would naturally lead to more usage of Perplexity's services.
A new browser's success hinges on its user experience. Early testing reveals that Comet is a powerful tool with significant potential, but also some notable drawbacks.
The Good: For simple, context-aware tasks, the Comet Assistant is surprisingly helpful. The ability to load it in the sidecar and have it understand your current activity streamlines many common workflows. It can effectively answer questions about social media posts, videos, and even text within a Google Doc you're writing. This eliminates the constant need to switch between tabs and applications to get AI assistance.
The Uneasy: To unlock its full potential, Comet requires a startling level of access to your personal data. A hands-on review by TechCrunch highlighted the discomfort of granting the browser permission to view your screen, send emails on your behalf, look at your contacts, and add events to your calendar. While these permissions are necessary for the assistant to function as advertised, it represents a significant privacy trade-off that may make many users hesitate.
The Bad: When tasked with more complex, multi-step requests, the assistant's reliability crumbles. In one test, a request to find and book long-term airport parking resulted in the AI agent hallucinating. It presented options that fit the criteria but then entered completely incorrect dates when attempting to book, rendering it unhelpful. This is a common failure point for the current generation of AI agents and a major hurdle for their mainstream adoption for critical tasks.
Comet does not launch in a vacuum. The browser market is notoriously difficult to penetrate, dominated by giants like Google Chrome and Apple's Safari. Furthermore, the AI-browser space is heating up. Google is aggressively integrating its Gemini AI into Chrome and has launched AI Overviews in Search. The Browser Company recently released its AI-first browser, Dia, and reports suggest OpenAI has considered launching its own browser to compete. Perplexity faces the dual challenge of convincing users to switch browsers and proving its AI integration is superior to the competition's.
If you're eager to try Comet, you'll need to be patient or willing to pay a premium. Access is initially exclusive and being rolled out in a limited fashion.
Comet is available first to subscribers of the newly announced Perplexity Max plan. This top-tier subscription costs $200 per month and is designed for professionals and power users who need unlimited access to Perplexity's most advanced tools, including top AI models like OpenAI's o3-pro and Claude Opus 4.
A small group of users who signed up for the waitlist will also receive invite-only access over the summer. Perplexity notes that user data within Comet is stored locally on the browser and is not used for model training.
Perplexity's Comet is a bold and significant product that offers a tangible glimpse into the future of web interaction. It proposes a fundamental shift from a passive, search-driven experience to an active, conversational partnership with our browser. While the current execution has flaws—particularly in reliability for complex tasks and the weighty privacy implications—the concept is powerful. The ultimate success of Comet will depend on whether Perplexity can refine its technology, justify its premium price point, and convince users that the benefits of an AI co-pilot are worth abandoning the comfort of their current browser. It’s a high-stakes bet on a new way of navigating our digital world.
Another browser. Seriously? As if you don't already have enough tabs open in your digital life. And now here comes one that wants to read your emails and book your parking. I can already see it booking a spot for a clown car at a monster truck rally because it misunderstood the calendar context. The irony is that you're being asked to give up a piece of your digital privacy for an artificial intelligence that still makes rookie mistakes. It's like giving your house keys to a toddler who promises to clean up but will probably just spill paint on the carpet.
But okay, let's forget about parking and imagine it in professional practice. A lawyer could have Comet Assistant compare legal documents on one page with case law databases in another tab and instantly highlight discrepancies. A financial analyst could command it to monitor live stock data on one screen and summarize relevant news from multiple sources, alerting them to anomalies in real-time. Or a doctor reviewing a patient's records could have it search for the latest research papers on a specific condition mentioned in the file. Maybe it's not about replacing the browser, but about transforming it from a passive window into an active collaborator. And that's an idea that has real game-changing potential if it can overcome its current growing pains.
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