Perplexity AI launches Comet their AI powered internet browser

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered search engine Perplexity AI is planning on launching its own web browser as a follow on to the launch of it’s Google wanna-be-killer search engine. The company said in a post on X that the browser, dubbed Comet, was “Coming soon,” and invited people to sign up on a waitlist in a reply.

“Just like Perplexity reinvented search, we’re also reinventing the browser,” a Perplexity spokesperson told reporters via E-Mail, adding “Stay tuned for updates.”

The company said in October that its search engine served over 100 million queries per week.

“Perplexity now serves over 100M queries every week,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas wrote in a post on X at the time. “Next stop: 100M+ queries every day.”

In December, Perplexity reportedly closed a $500 million funding round, tripling the startup’s valuation to $9 billion. The company’s backers included SoftBank, Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the company had a valuation of $520 Million early in 2024. During that summer, it was valued at $3 billion.

In November, the company also introduced an AI-powered shopping assistant for US consumers. Through Buy With Pro, shoppers can research and purchase products, Perplexity said in a blog post.

“It marks a big leap forward in how we serve our users - empowering seamless native actions right from an answer,” the company said in the post. “Shopping online just got 10x easier and fun.”

The feature is only available to Perplexity Pro users in the US. It lets users check out on the company’s website or app for select products from select merchants, according to the post. Consumers who save their shipping and billing information on the portal can use a one-click checkout option. Additionally, Perplexity unveiled a visual search tool called Snap to Shop, which helps consumers find an item by uploading a photo. Snap to Shop will display relevant products based on the photo, with no need for a product description or name, according to the post.

In other search engine news, a recent Bank of America Global Research report found that global daily visits to Google search are “Stable” despite the surge in the number of AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.

In January, the global average daily visits to Google were up 1% to 2.7 Billion from December and down just 1% year over year, according to the report. The daily visits include desktop and mobile searches.

Google’s continued search engine dominance comes as AI chatbots continue to grow in popularity. Last month, visits to ChatGPT were up 4% month over month and 148% year over year to 128 million globally.