Perplexity has just released its agent-based answer to Google Chrome, Comet, and it accomplished a number of tasks, although a human could have handled some of them faster. The new AI-powered browser is currently only available to Perplexity Max subscribers or via an early access waitlist, and it’s supposed to simplify your web browsing experience by bringing artificial intelligence into virtually everything you do.
First, it replaces Google search results with a Perplexity AI “answer engine” that appears in your browser window when you type a query into the address bar. Unlike a regular search engine, Perplexity first shows links to relevant websites and then generates information about what you are looking for. Comet’s distilled search results come in handy when you want it to narrow down the search results for you, but it’s a little frustrating not to see the huge selection of websites offered by Google.
Comet also has a built-in AI assistant similar to Gemini, which Google is testing in Chrome. If you click the Assistant button in the upper right corner of the browser, a sidebar with a chat interface will open. From here, you can type a query or use the voice mode to chat about various topics, as well as ask specific questions about the webpage you are on.
