Perplexity rips another page from the Google playbook with its own browser, Comet
(2025/07/09)
- Reference: 1752096673
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/09/perplexity_comet_browser/
- Source link:
Perplexity has released its own web browser called Comet, and it's clearly aimed at Google.
The AI search upstart has taken a page straight out of Google's playbook to try and supplant it: Comet comes with Perplexity AI search as the default search engine, a position The Chocolate Factory has fought to keep in various third-party browsers and platforms with a series of [1]contracts , some of which a court has ruled to be anticompetitive.
To understand just how valuable it is to be the default search engine in a browser, consider that Google [2]paid $26 billion in 2021 to have its search engine set as the default in various browsers. Apple alone [3]received about $20 billion from Google in 2022, so that Google Search would be the default search engine in Safari.
[4]
Comet attempts to capture some of that value by setting its own search service as the default and adding various AI capabilities that support automation and natural language interaction. It's available now for macOS and Windows to those paying $200 per month for a [5]Perplexity Max subscription, and presumably will be available for less costly tiers in the coming months. [6]According to the company , "Comet and Perplexity are free for all users and always will be."
[7]
[8]
Ironically, Google itself actually made Comet possible – it's a customization built on its [9]Chromium browser platform.
Personalization...and ads
Perplexity says it built Comet "to amplify our intelligence." But that's arguably a very simplified version of its goals. Like Google, Perplexity sees value in employing user data to personalize the browsing experience - and, perhaps, sell ads.
During an interview on the [10]TBPN tech podcast in April, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas cited personalized advertising as one of the reasons to build a browser, noting that you need "memory" – the ability to retain the information provided in and produced by prompts to AI models – to make personalization work.
"We plan to use all the context to build a better user profile and maybe, you know, through our discover feed we could show some ads there," he [11]said , only to later [12]insist that he was speaking hypothetically.
[13]
Non-hypothetically, Comet includes " [14]Personal Search with Comet Intelligence that analyzes your browsing history to retrieve relevant information."
In what might be seen as another jab at Google, Comet also comes with "built-in AdBlock for a cleaner browsing experience."
Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We wonder whether the AdBlock referenced refers to legitimate, non-commercial open source ad blocking (e.g. uBlock Origin) or ad blocking run by an ad tech firm to collect data and allow certain ads in exchange for payment.
A smarter browser that just does stuff for you
Perplexity also argues that browsing the web is just better with AI and natural language interaction.
"Comet transforms entire browsing sessions into single, seamless interactions, collapsing complex workflows into fluid conversations," the company muses in its launch [15]blog post .
[16]
"Ask Comet to book a meeting or send an email, based on something you saw. Ask Comet to buy something you forgot. Ask Comet to brief you for your day."
In other words, Comet users can use natural language commands – typed or spoken, assuming audio input is enabled – to manage tabs. What's more, Comet includes a Gmail connector for asking the AI service to perform email and calendar queries.
[17]C-suite sours on AI despite rising investment, survey finds
[18]Georgia court throws out earlier ruling that relied on fake cases made up by AI
[19]Anubis guards gates against hordes of LLM bot crawlers
[20]Scholars sneaking phrases into papers to fool AI reviewers
Perplexity suggests [21]Comet can be used to : "summarize videos you've watched; close files and tabs you haven't touched in days; group your research tabs into collections; show you who you're meeting with;" and other sorts of online interactions.
There's also an Ask Button that promises to provide contextual information about web pages, and a Summarize button for those who can't be bothered with reading more than a few words.
The thing is, none of this really requires a dedicated browser. OpenAI's [22]Operator provides a way to automate browsing sessions and interact with the web either programmatically or through a chat interface. Anthropic's Claude is [23]capable of browser use .
But owning the browser provides access to a lot of downstream activity and data, and offers opportunities to strike deals with other vendors to make their services interoperate more effectively with AI agents.
Thus, there's a lot of AI-browser integration as browser makers work to keep control over how AI gets deployed and used. Google offers [24]Gemini in Chrome . Opera is testing [25]Opera Neon . Microsoft has installed [26]Copilot in Edge . Mozilla has enabled [27]a choice of chatbots in the Firefox sidebar. Brave has a built-in AI bot called [28]Leo . Apple, [29]sued for overpromising Siri's capabilities , is [30]reportedly looking into AI-augmented search in Safari.
Among commercial browser vendors, only Vivaldi seems willing to [31]hold off on integrating AI with the browser.
"LLMs are essentially confident-sounding lying machines with a penchant to occasionally disclose private data or plagiarise existing work," explained software developer Julien Picalausa in a blog post last year. "While they do this, they also use vast amounts of energy and are happy using all the GPUs you can throw at them, which is a problem we’ve seen before in the field of cryptocurrencies.
"As such, it does not feel right to bundle any such solution into Vivaldi."
Meanwhile, the 800-pound gorilla of AI isn't standing still. According to [32]Reuters , OpenAI is planning a browser of its own. ®
Get our [33]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/05/google_default_search_deals_violate/
[2] https://www.npr.org/2024/08/05/nx-s1-5064624/google-justice-department-antitrust-search
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/google_pays_apple_18_20_claims_bernstein/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-perplexity-max
[6] https://comet.perplexity.ai/#values
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/11172798-getting-started-with-comet
[10] https://www.tbpn.com/
[11] https://www.youtube.com/live/DZkDPtE4WmA?feature=shared&t=2625
[12] https://x.com/AravSrinivas/status/1915532930270503290
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/10968016-memory
[15] https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-comet
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/csuite_sours_on_ai/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/georgia_appeals_court_ai_caselaw/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/anubis_fighting_the_llm_hordes/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/07/scholars_try_to_fool_llm_reviewers/
[21] https://www.perplexity.ai/comet/gettingstarted
[22] https://openai.com/index/introducing-operator/
[23] https://www.anthropic.com/news/3-5-models-and-computer-use
[24] https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/?hl=en
[25] https://www.operaneon.com/
[26] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/features/ai
[27] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot
[28] https://brave.com/leo/
[29] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/21/apple_hallucinated_siri_ai_features/
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/google_apple_cue/
[31] https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/vivaldi-wont-allow-a-machine-to-lie-to-you/
[32] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/openai-release-web-browser-challenge-google-chrome-2025-07-09/
[33] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The AI search upstart has taken a page straight out of Google's playbook to try and supplant it: Comet comes with Perplexity AI search as the default search engine, a position The Chocolate Factory has fought to keep in various third-party browsers and platforms with a series of [1]contracts , some of which a court has ruled to be anticompetitive.
To understand just how valuable it is to be the default search engine in a browser, consider that Google [2]paid $26 billion in 2021 to have its search engine set as the default in various browsers. Apple alone [3]received about $20 billion from Google in 2022, so that Google Search would be the default search engine in Safari.
[4]
Comet attempts to capture some of that value by setting its own search service as the default and adding various AI capabilities that support automation and natural language interaction. It's available now for macOS and Windows to those paying $200 per month for a [5]Perplexity Max subscription, and presumably will be available for less costly tiers in the coming months. [6]According to the company , "Comet and Perplexity are free for all users and always will be."
[7]
[8]
Ironically, Google itself actually made Comet possible – it's a customization built on its [9]Chromium browser platform.
Personalization...and ads
Perplexity says it built Comet "to amplify our intelligence." But that's arguably a very simplified version of its goals. Like Google, Perplexity sees value in employing user data to personalize the browsing experience - and, perhaps, sell ads.
During an interview on the [10]TBPN tech podcast in April, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas cited personalized advertising as one of the reasons to build a browser, noting that you need "memory" – the ability to retain the information provided in and produced by prompts to AI models – to make personalization work.
"We plan to use all the context to build a better user profile and maybe, you know, through our discover feed we could show some ads there," he [11]said , only to later [12]insist that he was speaking hypothetically.
[13]
Non-hypothetically, Comet includes " [14]Personal Search with Comet Intelligence that analyzes your browsing history to retrieve relevant information."
In what might be seen as another jab at Google, Comet also comes with "built-in AdBlock for a cleaner browsing experience."
Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We wonder whether the AdBlock referenced refers to legitimate, non-commercial open source ad blocking (e.g. uBlock Origin) or ad blocking run by an ad tech firm to collect data and allow certain ads in exchange for payment.
A smarter browser that just does stuff for you
Perplexity also argues that browsing the web is just better with AI and natural language interaction.
"Comet transforms entire browsing sessions into single, seamless interactions, collapsing complex workflows into fluid conversations," the company muses in its launch [15]blog post .
[16]
"Ask Comet to book a meeting or send an email, based on something you saw. Ask Comet to buy something you forgot. Ask Comet to brief you for your day."
In other words, Comet users can use natural language commands – typed or spoken, assuming audio input is enabled – to manage tabs. What's more, Comet includes a Gmail connector for asking the AI service to perform email and calendar queries.
[17]C-suite sours on AI despite rising investment, survey finds
[18]Georgia court throws out earlier ruling that relied on fake cases made up by AI
[19]Anubis guards gates against hordes of LLM bot crawlers
[20]Scholars sneaking phrases into papers to fool AI reviewers
Perplexity suggests [21]Comet can be used to : "summarize videos you've watched; close files and tabs you haven't touched in days; group your research tabs into collections; show you who you're meeting with;" and other sorts of online interactions.
There's also an Ask Button that promises to provide contextual information about web pages, and a Summarize button for those who can't be bothered with reading more than a few words.
The thing is, none of this really requires a dedicated browser. OpenAI's [22]Operator provides a way to automate browsing sessions and interact with the web either programmatically or through a chat interface. Anthropic's Claude is [23]capable of browser use .
But owning the browser provides access to a lot of downstream activity and data, and offers opportunities to strike deals with other vendors to make their services interoperate more effectively with AI agents.
Thus, there's a lot of AI-browser integration as browser makers work to keep control over how AI gets deployed and used. Google offers [24]Gemini in Chrome . Opera is testing [25]Opera Neon . Microsoft has installed [26]Copilot in Edge . Mozilla has enabled [27]a choice of chatbots in the Firefox sidebar. Brave has a built-in AI bot called [28]Leo . Apple, [29]sued for overpromising Siri's capabilities , is [30]reportedly looking into AI-augmented search in Safari.
Among commercial browser vendors, only Vivaldi seems willing to [31]hold off on integrating AI with the browser.
"LLMs are essentially confident-sounding lying machines with a penchant to occasionally disclose private data or plagiarise existing work," explained software developer Julien Picalausa in a blog post last year. "While they do this, they also use vast amounts of energy and are happy using all the GPUs you can throw at them, which is a problem we’ve seen before in the field of cryptocurrencies.
"As such, it does not feel right to bundle any such solution into Vivaldi."
Meanwhile, the 800-pound gorilla of AI isn't standing still. According to [32]Reuters , OpenAI is planning a browser of its own. ®
Get our [33]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/05/google_default_search_deals_violate/
[2] https://www.npr.org/2024/08/05/nx-s1-5064624/google-justice-department-antitrust-search
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/google_pays_apple_18_20_claims_bernstein/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-perplexity-max
[6] https://comet.perplexity.ai/#values
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/11172798-getting-started-with-comet
[10] https://www.tbpn.com/
[11] https://www.youtube.com/live/DZkDPtE4WmA?feature=shared&t=2625
[12] https://x.com/AravSrinivas/status/1915532930270503290
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/10968016-memory
[15] https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-comet
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aG7mdJzUfJJn7Ygri1nm7wAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/csuite_sours_on_ai/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/georgia_appeals_court_ai_caselaw/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/anubis_fighting_the_llm_hordes/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/07/scholars_try_to_fool_llm_reviewers/
[21] https://www.perplexity.ai/comet/gettingstarted
[22] https://openai.com/index/introducing-operator/
[23] https://www.anthropic.com/news/3-5-models-and-computer-use
[24] https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-in-chrome/?hl=en
[25] https://www.operaneon.com/
[26] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/features/ai
[27] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-chatbot
[28] https://brave.com/leo/
[29] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/21/apple_hallucinated_siri_ai_features/
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/google_apple_cue/
[31] https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/vivaldi-wont-allow-a-machine-to-lie-to-you/
[32] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/openai-release-web-browser-challenge-google-chrome-2025-07-09/
[33] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
Ask Comet to book a meeting
Nope.
or send an email
Nope,
based on something you saw.
Definitely nope
Ask Comet to buy something you forgot.
You are kidding, right?
Ask Comet to brief you for your day.
Bullshit in = bullshit out.
Nope.
That is all.