TECH NEWS – Another AI company is trying to increase the popularity of its search tool, but it will have to spend a lot of money to do so.
Perplexity AI, an Nvidia-backed startup, is seeking a foothold in the mobile market by partnering with smartphone manufacturers. The company hopes to compete with Google‘s search engine by making AI-based search features more accessible to users. To that end, CEO Aravind Srinivas is negotiating with phone manufacturers to preinstall its Comet browser on mobile devices. While Google remains the undisputed leader in search, even as OpenAI and others develop their own engines, the tech giant holds a broad and firm position in the market. Yet Perplexity AI hopes its new Comet browser will help it challenge this dominance.
According to Yahoo Finance, Aravind Srinivas is in talks with smartphone makers to have Comet pre-installed on their devices. Srinivas aims to take advantage of “browser stickiness”—the tendency for users to stick with a pre-installed browser. This would help the company gain traction by using the same technique that has kept Google ahead for so long.
Srinivas has been open about the challenges involved in getting companies to pick Comet over Chrome, especially since Google’s browser has been around for so many years. He emphasized that user inertia—the tendency to rely on pre-installed apps—makes this process even tougher. Convincing mobile OEMs to make Comet the default browser instead of Chrome is no easy feat.
Though Comet is still in beta and currently available on PC, it smoothly integrates Perplexity AI into the browsing experience. It enables users to interact with their own data by asking questions or issuing commands. The browser can also summarize web pages, schedule meetings on the user’s behalf, and serve as a personalized assistant. The aim is to redefine the way users interact on the web and simplify their everyday digital lives.
Perplexity is taking an ambitious approach with Comet and plans to reach as many as 100 million users by next year. The AI startup isn’t the only one seeking growth in this space, as the industry is clearly moving toward agent-based AI browsers that can handle tasks with minimal human intervention.
Leave a Reply