Perplexity Comet and the AI-Powered Future of Web Browsing (Premium)

Earlier this month, Perplexity announced its AI-powered web browser, Comet. At the time, it was limited to subscribers who paid the company $200 per month for Perplexity Max, but it said at the time that it would expand availability to other users, and it set up a waitlist for those interested in its take on the future of web browsers.

As I'm sure you know, I am quite interested in the future of web browsers and how AI will impact this more important of apps. And so I signed up for the waitlist. And waited. Until last night, when I was unexpectedly told I could download Comet and check it out.

A quick level-set first. The web browsers we use today--mostly Chrome, sometimes Safari if you're an Apple user, and then a seemingly endless list of secondary (Microsoft Edge, maybe Mozilla Firefox) and tertiary (Brave, Opera, Vivaldi) options--all offer some form of AI integration today. But the implementations vary functionally and from a user experience perspective. And there are bolder pushes into a possible future of AI/browser integration from fringe players like The Browser Company and its new Dia browser. Which is limited to the Mac for now and still an early preview.

Comet falls into that latter bucket, of course. Like Dia, it's still in early preview and limited, in this case to Windows. I've only just started using it, and I have next to no experience with Perplexity AI. But here's what sticks out in my early testing. Very early.
?️ Yes, it's Chromium
As soon as I got past the introductory screens and saw the browser itself, it was immediately clear that Comet is based on Chromium, the open source de facto standard browser used by Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and many other third-party browsers.

Some will bemoan this, but that's  wrongheaded. I've made the case many times that a web browser engine is where we need standardization, not choices, and that browser makers should collaborate on that piece of the puzzle and innovate on top, adding their own unique differentiating features.

The success of Chromium being used that way should speak for itself. But Comet is yet another proof point: Rather than reinvent the wheel, Perplexity can simply do the thing it wants and needs to do and build an AI-powered product with whatever features and functionality. The existence of Chromium doesn't just make this possible, it frees Perplexity from wasting time on basic browser functionality, not to mention compatibility and performance. It's just there, and it just works.

Using Chromium isn't just the right decision, it's obvious.
? First run
The Comet onboarding process is quick and easy. After a short animation, you pick a username (really, a profile that's specific to this install), an avatar (from a set of bowling ball-like circles), and a theme (light, dark, or system).

And then you're provided with a useful New tab page that, as it turns out, is not the normal New tab page, listing many of the ways in which you...