Is perplexity the next Google?

Comet, what perplexity tells Fortune Will be available for all PERPLEXITY PRO users from Wednesday, has several advantages compared to Chrome. Unlike the Google web browser, where most AI features arrive via additional modules or extensions, the AI assistant of Comet is always present, remaining in the upper right corner of the window of your browser. It can instantly summarize the content, compare the information between the tabs (a huge time saving to shop), automate workflows (book meetings, send e-mails, etc.), remind you of events and much more. Chrome has not recently added limited features of AI like Gemini, the Google Lens and “Tab compare” sidebar, but these remain additional modules and do not offer end-to-end automation or context monitoring such as Comet agency agent.

Comet is ready to transform navigation because we know it into an more conversational experience, where you interact with your browser to move as fast as your brain allows. But Perplexity’s blockbuster movement this week raises an important question: if the perplexity absorbs chrome, Could it become the next Google?

Perplexity’s game? Go beyond “research”

Thomas Grange, co-founder and director of innovation of the AI-Search Botify optimization platform, says: “There will be no” next Google “.

“The game has changed,” he said Fortune. “What comes out of the AI search mixture and traditional browsers is not only a faster search engine, it is a completely hyper personalized way, in the context and the conversation to find information.”

Grange says that the promise of AI search engines is that AI agents act on behalf of the users, interacting with other agents and transforming web navigation into something much more efficient and automated. The Comet’s Comet browser, which made its debut last month and takes place to all professional users from this week, illustrates this change. Unlike traditional browsers, the comet puts an AI response engine at the heart of its interface, allowing users to ask questions and get direct answers rather than having to browse a list of links. Above all, the assistant can act on behalf of the users, which made navigation less on navigation and more on productivity.

Usha Haley, professor of Wichita State University and Barton’s distinguished president in international affairs, says that Perplexity’s offer for Chrome “seems much less daring once you try Comet”.

“An AI persistent assistant who can work on any web page changes the web from a place to navigate to the one that works for you. The addition of a massive user base of chrome and the domination of the browser could give perplexity a unique jump in distribution, ”she says Fortune. But, she notes, “the next Google has a very high bar.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRMDJ6RXXMG

But while perplexity can buy part From Google’s ecosystem (Chrome), scaling the level of level of Google infrastructure, scope and confidence will be extremely difficult. “AI browsers work well in certain limited tasks. But the road to the demo Wow as a daily habit is long and winding, “she says.

Redefine the way we use the internet

Joshua McKenty, former NASA architect and CEO of the Cybersecurity Society Polyguard, says Fortune: “The acquisition of chrome by any player, but especially by a great AI player, is extremely important.

“Chrome represents one of the most powerful sources of new existing training data, especially if it is moved from the Google connection experience,” he adds. “The browser is the only scratch method that can travel behind each connection and each firewall to index … literally everything.”

Of course, not everyone is convinced that perplexity will become the next Google – or that it would even be authorized to have chrome. Ari Paparo, a former Google executive, says Fortune“We must understand that the DoJ and the courts will not blindly allow a new monopoly just to replace the one they break.

“The AI is both hungry for the data to which a web browser reaches, but also becomes more useful to the consumer because it has the context of what they do,” explains Paparo. “Whether it is perplexity, Openai or one of the giants of inherited technology that end as a chrome owner, it will be a huge change in the ecosystem.”

Haley also highlights confidentiality and reliability as key challenges because the scale, reliability and user confidence is essential for any Google challenger goes beyond a moment of “demo wow”. But Eric Vaughan, CEO of the company software company focused on IGNiteTech, says that Perplexity can win by “completely eliminating the concept of research”.

“Real reality here is less to improve search results and completely get around the websites,” he said Fortune.

For perplexity, possession of chrome, if the regulators allow this to happen, would mean immediate access to billions of daily users, abundant behavioral data and the distribution muscle to push themselves to the foreground of the AI breed.

What happens next?

Perplexity, which is supported by Nvidia and SoftBank, among others, says that funding is available, but its offer for Chrome is undoubtedly faced with major regulatory, financial and technical obstacles. To be frank, the offer of Perplexity for Chrome is in the long term. (On the one hand, Google Parent Alphabet does not readily sell.) The startup based in San Francisco has only a tiny fraction of the number of Google users and an infinitesimal part of its income.

In addition, the rivals of the AI space are working on their own AI web browsers. Microsoft’s Edge browser now has Copilot mode, which, like the Comète de Perplexity, can see and analyze open tabs, run autonomous tasks such as reservations, responds to voice commands, summarize the content in real time, and more – but in particular, it is free and closely integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem. OPENAI, the AI leader, is about to publish his own browser fueled by AI, designed to maintain user interactions in a chatgpt type interface and take advantage of its 500 million weekly active users to challenge chrome. But the research tool based on the original AI of Perplexity has already been credited by a lot of tech for having put pressure on its rivals like Google to upgrade and rethink their own approach to research.

Whether the connection of perplexity-chrome occurs or not, the emergence of navigators fueled by AI has prepared the terrain for a deep change in industry. Barry Lowenthal, president of the AIA advertising company, said: “Google has been the default search engine for so long that it is practically a reflex, but research tools powered by AI like perplexity modify this equation.

“If Chrome joins the mixture, the potential scope and the conviviality soar,” he said Fortune. “But becoming the next Google does not only concern technology, it’s about winning confidence, habit and scale. It’s a long game, and at the moment, perplexity is just starting to play.”

For this story, Fortune Used a generative AI to help an initial project. An editor checked the accuracy of the information before the publication.