"Last week, I watched a friend wrestle with their browser tabs for the third time that morning. Email in one tab, flight comparison site in another, concert tickets in a third, a half-drafted email buried somewhere in between. "I need an assistant," they muttered. I thought: What if your browser were the assistant? That's exactly what Perplexity AI is betting on with Comet, their AI-powered browser that just went from a $200-per-month exclusive to free for everyone worldwide."
"According to Perplexity, users who downloaded Comet increased their question-asking by 6-18 times on their first day. That's not a marginal improvement. That's a fundamental shift in how people interact with information online. But here's what makes Comet different from the dozens of "AI-enhanced" tools flooding the market: it's not trying to replace your thinking. It's trying to keep pace with it."
Perplexity released Comet, an AI-powered browser, and shifted from a $200/month exclusive to free worldwide within 90 days. Comet places a context-aware sidecar assistant alongside every tab to see page content automatically and answer questions without copying links. Early adoption drove a 6–18× increase in question-asking on first day, showing a large change in how people query information online. The sidecar remains unobtrusive and available on demand, avoiding interruptive chatbot behavior while preserving browsing context. The product emphasizes augmentation rather than replacement of user thinking, aiming to keep pace with human workflows. The rapid pivot to mass accessibility signals intensified competition and experimentation in the browser-as-assistant space.
Read at Medium
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