Perplexity Comet is not the primary AI-powered internet browser to reach. That honor goes to Dia, however due to the recognition of Perplexity as an AI-enabled search engine and chatbot, it is getting a number of consideration. It deserves it.
An agentic browser, Comet is not only a internet browser with AI glued to it, as are Chrome with Gemini and Edge with Copilot. It is designed from the bottom up to make use of AI to automate duties and enhance your workflow.
Its structure is constructed round an AI assistant, Comet Assistant, that lives in a sidebar. There, it will probably work on the content material of any energetic webpage. So, as an illustration, you’ll be able to ask questions on YouTube movies, analyze Google Docs, or summarize articles with out leaving your web page or different open tabs. You may as well use it to carry out such duties as reserving conferences, making purchases, or signing up for providers.
In brief, Comet Assistant is context-aware, capable of reference open tabs for analysis, summarize content material inline, and reply questions on internet pages with out copy-pasting. That is particularly helpful for duties like evaluating merchandise throughout websites or analyzing info on the fly.
If you happen to’re the form of one who retains dozens of tabs open while you’re engaged on an issue, you will love how Comet can pull info from all of your tabs to present you solutions.
The solutions themselves come from the primary Perplexity Massive Language Mannequin (LLM). As earlier than, I discovered Perplexity to present good solutions, typically talking. Higher nonetheless, since Perplexity cites sources for every thing it tells you, it is easy to make sure its responses are correct. Let me add, for these of you who need AI to resolve all of your questions with out work, it’s worthwhile to examine these citations. Like all LLMs, Perplexity nonetheless regularly will get information incorrect. All the time, at all times double-check its responses.
Comet is constructed on Google’s open-source Chromium — sure, it is one more Chrome-based browser — so it needs to be suitable with virtually all Chrome extensions, and seamlessly import your bookmarks and settings.
That proved to be the case after I examined Comet on my Apple 2023 Mac Mini with an M2 processor and eight GB of RAM working macOS Sequoia 15.5. Certainly, the setup course of took mere moments, with all my Chrome bookmarks, extensions, and logins transferring over easily. For now, the one means you’ll be able to set up and run Comet is on a Mac with an M processor.
Comet is not going to run on an Intel-powered Mac. I do know. I attempted it only for giggles on my Intel-based Mac mini. I preferred my previous Macs, nevertheless it’s previous time to maneuver on.
Finally, you can run Comet on Home windows, nevertheless it will not be within the subsequent few days. Someday after that, Comet might be out there on Linux. Whereas the browser itself is free — and at all times might be — for now, you will need to even be a Perplexity Max tier subscriber, which prices $200 per thirty days to make use of it absolutely. Even then, not everybody will get it instantly. Perplexity is rolling it out steadily to waitlisted customers. As customers are added, new ones will obtain a restricted variety of invitations to share.
If you cannot wait, you’ll be able to obtain this system for the Mac in the present day. Nevertheless, it will not be absolutely useful except you’ve got obtained an invite. The one function it is possible for you to to make use of in Perplexity will be capable of learn your present tabs and use their info to reply your queries. You may additionally regularly see an error message telling you, “Your Comet expertise is restricted.”
As soon as I had it put in, I discovered it labored shortly, however its efficiency wasn’t excellent. Reasonably than simply counting on my impression, I benchmarked this system with Speedometer 3.1. That is an open-source internet browser benchmark that measures Internet utility responsiveness by timing simulated consumer interactions on varied workloads throughout many in style JavaScript frameworks and applied sciences comparable to React, Angular, and Vue. Began by Apple, Speedometer is now beneath the steering of Apple, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Mozilla. On Speedometer, Comet had a rating of 29.3, whereas Chrome 138, the most recent model, scored 34.3. Remember, nonetheless, as a beta program, Comet comprises code that hasn’t been optimized for velocity but.
I am sorry to report that a few of Comet’s options are nonetheless not working nicely. Particularly, Comet Help guarantees it might do all types of neat issues with my Gmail and Google Calendar accounts, comparable to answering emails, reserving appointments on my schedule, you already know, the standard “How AI will make your life simpler stuff.” Spoiler alert: It failed.
Constructed on Google’s Chromium, it ought to work easily with Google providers. It would not. Particularly, whereas Perplexity Comet is designed to combine with Gmail and Google Calendar and automate related duties, I had a heck of a time authenticating my Gmail account with it.
My drawback was that Perplexity Connector and Google saved refusing to sync with one another. Even after I acquired it nailed down, whereas Comet Assistant might learn, summarize, and search emails or calendar occasions, it typically didn’t carry out extra superior actions like sending emails, replying, or managing calendar invitations. This is because of conflicts with Google safety restrictions, which stop third-party instruments from executing particular actions on a consumer’s behalf with out express, repeated authorization. In lots of circumstances, Comet offered handbook follow-up directions, however that was a ache.
After all, if privateness is a priority, you do not need to use Comet in any respect. Whereas it features a native advert blocker out of the field, in response to its privateness coverage, “Your enter and output, comparable to questions, prompts and different content material that you just enter, add or undergo the Companies, and the output that you just create, and any collections or pages that you just generate utilizing the Companies” might be saved by the corporate. So, if you happen to give it entry to your Google account, any information pulled from will probably be in Perplexity’s fingers as nicely.
This shouldn’t be a shock. If you happen to use AI, AI will use your information. If you happen to’re keen to make the commerce, any AI system will make that cope with you.
I like what Comet is attempting to do, nevertheless it’s simply not there but. Give it time. I feel Perplexity will get it there.
Within the meantime, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has grand goals for Comet. On the June Bloomberg Tech Summit, he mentioned, “If individuals are within the browser, it is infinite retention. All the pieces within the search bar, every thing on the brand new tab web page, every thing you are doing on the sidecar, any of the pages you are in, these are all going to be additional queries per energetic consumer, in addition to in search of new customers who simply are uninterested in legacy browsers, like Chrome.” Sure, you are not studying between the traces, Google and Chrome are the goal.
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