Artificial intelligence-powered search engine Perplexity AI is currently planning to launch its own web browser.
Last Monday, February 24, the mentioned US company, which is based in San Francisco, posted a message on the social media platform X, which contained information that a browser called Comet was coming soon. Perplexity AI also invited users to sign up on the waiting list.
The company’s spokesperson, in a media comment, stated that just like Perplexity AI reinvented search, this company is reinventing the browser.
In October, the brand announced that its search engine handles more than 100 million queries per week. At that time, a message with relevant content in X was published by Perplexity AI chief executive officer Aravind Srinivas. He also noted that the company’s next goal is to serve more than 100 million queries every day.
According to information published by the media, in December, Perplexity AI closed a $500 million funding round, after which the market capitalization of the firm showed a threefold increase, reaching the $9 billion mark. The company’s backers include SoftBank, Nvidia, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. At the beginning of 2024, Perplexity AI had a valuation of $520 million. Last summer, the corresponding figure rose to $3 billion. This dynamic is a clear indication that Perplexity AI is on a trajectory of rapid development. The company operates in the Internet search area, which is not something innovative and has already become a familiar virtual environment for the consumer audience. At the same time, Perplexity AI offers consumers a search engine powered by artificial intelligence, which is a distinctive feature of this digital product. However, the integration of machine intelligence into the Internet search area is gradually scaling up. This means that Perplexity AI will either need to develop new products or improve its existing functional solutions to remain competitive. So far, the company continues to move along an upward trajectory without facing such pressure from other industry players, which would be so strong that, like a symbolic wind of a diverse market, it would blow the firm off the symbolic plane of fast-growing brands.
In November, Perplexity AI introduced an artificial intelligence-powered shopping assistant to consumers in the United States. This tool is called Buy With Pro. In November, a message was published on the company’s blog containing information that consumers, using the mentioned tool, can research and purchase products. At that time, the firm also stated that the launch of Buy With Pro marks a big leap in how Perplexity AI serves its customers. It was noted that in this case, consumers are allowed to empower seamless native actions immediately after receiving a response. The company also stated that online shopping has become ten times easier and more fun. The mentioned tool is only available to Perplexity Pro users in the United States. In this case, consumers can check out on the company’s website or app for select products from select merchants. Customers who save their shipping and billing information on the portal can use a one-click checkout option.
Perplexity AI has also developed a visual search tool called Snap to Shop, which helps consumers find an item by uploading a photo. This tool displays relevant products based on the photo, with no need for a product description or name.
The Bank of America Global Research report indicates that global daily visits to Google search continue to be stable, despite the availability of alternatives in the form of chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT from OpenAI, the corresponding functional system from Perplexity AI and Claude from Anthropic.
The mentioned report also contains information that in January, the average number of global visits to Google increased by 1% compared to the indicator for the previous month, amounting to 2.7 billion. However, the January figure fell by 1% year-on-year. At the same time, this minimal decrease is definitely not a sign of Google’s weakening position.
Meanwhile, the popularity of chatbots powered by artificial intelligence continues to show growth. In January, the number of visits to ChatGPT increased by 4% compared to the previous month and showed a growth of 148% year-on-year. The January reading was 128 million visits globally.
It is worth mentioning that in December, OpenAI rolled out the search product for all users of ChatGPT. To a large extent, this is a landmark action, signifying the interest of one of the largest players in the artificial intelligence industry in Internet search. It is highly likely that the search engine development process will scale in the AI area. In the long run, this means increased competition against Google, which has confidently maintained its dominant position. At the same time, this Internet search giant has overhauled its search products by adding more conversational machine intelligence features.
