A few days ago, Perplexity surprised (baffled?) the tech world with an unsolicited $34.5B bid for Chrome. While it makes sense in context of Google's need to divest after losing a massive antitrust case over their search engine, cited as "illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation", the move still seemed pretty bold. Until I actually spent time using their new Comet Browser and its built-in Comet Assistant.
I recorded a 6-minute demo to showcase what I think sets Comet apart. Not just as "yet another AI browser," but as a potential blueprint for how we'll all use the web in the near future.
Here's What Struck Me
1. AI-Powered Email Triage (with real multi-account support)
Comet's assistant can analyze multiple inboxes, summarize unread threads, and even propose and schedule meetings, all inside one interface. This is a big leap from the inbox-zero tools built for just Gmail or Outlook.
2. Multi-Tab Doc Analysis & Instant Code Generation
The "@" shortcut lets you reference files, tabs, or even parts of code/documents, and get summaries, explanations, or working code samples. Context switching drops way down.
3. Ridiculously Fast Video Summarization
Open Comet Assistant on an hour-long YouTube video, click the recommended summarize prompt, and in under five seconds, you get a solid summary and key bullet points. Wildly useful for anyone trying to keep up with technical talk videos, conference sessions, or even product demos.
4. Voice Navigation That Actually Works
You can issue real, complex navigation commands by voice (not just "scroll down"). Honestly, this is the first time voice navigation hasn't felt like a gimmick to me.
Why This Matters
This isn't just "browser wars, round 23." It's a rethink of what browsers should even do, especially for anyone working in tech/product spaces:
- The "AI-to-Web" layer isn't just about convenience. It's starting to change how we build, test, research, and ship.
- Perplexity isn't just layering AI on top of a browser. They're making the browser itself a command interface for web automation.
Not All Sunshine and Rainbows
Perplexity's search engine, which is the default in Comet Browser, doesn't have a toggle to make AI summaries optional. It's always a full-on essay, but sometimes I just need the top result from an indexed search.
In contrast, Google's search engine AI summary is typically only a few sentences long, with an optional "expand" toggle for a deeper dive, and indexed search results right below the summary.
Personally, I think more "progressive design" could be considered. Giving users more agency and control over their workflows is essential, especially as AI is increasingly shifting power away from the end user.
Try It!
If you work in tech, AI, or digital products, I think it's worth checking out. My full demo (above) walks through the flows I found transformative, but I'm very curious what power users and skeptics think.
Where do you see AI-native browsers going? What can they change versus what still needs old-school tabs? Let's debate in the comments.
Tags: ai, productivity, discuss, tooling
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