Google Chrome may be the most popular browser in the world, but it’s far from being the most feature-laden. I’ve been trying new browsers for a while, but after using Perplexity’s AI-powered Comet browser, I don’t think I can go back to Chrome.
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A homepage that’s actually useful
One of the biggest differences between Perplexity’s Comet and Google Chrome right out of the box is the homepage. The default Google Chrome homepage has a Google search bar and some bookmarks or recently visited tabs. It’s helpful if you need to do a quick Google search or revisit a tab, but that’s about it.
Comet, on the other hand, packs a lot more functionality into its homepage. When you open the browser, you’re greeted with the Perplexity AI search bar with some helpful widgets right underneath. These widgets are customizable and can show you the time, selected stocks, weather, recent websites, and more.
The homepage is also contextually aware. It means that it tracks your browsing patterns and can suggest relevant content, remind you of what you were working on, and even surface information based on your current workload. In a time when modern browsers are dropping this iconic feature, I’m really happy that Comet has turned around the traditional approach to browser homepages.
3
Comet does your browsing for you
Comet also has an agentic AI that can perform tasks on your behalf. This works while you’re away from the tab as well. You can tell the browser to do something for you, switch to another tab, and work on something more important while Comet takes care of the mundane tasks for you.
The agentic AI is also contextually aware, so you can tell it to do all sorts of tasks. Got too many browser tabs open? Ask Comet to analyze all tabs, provide summaries, and suggest which ones to close. It will literally go through every tab and close any unnecessary ones for you. Not only does this help avoid a cluttered browser, it also helps keep resource usage down as you’re actively closing unwanted tabs.
Comet also understands context from open tabs and can group or close similar tabs together. This way, you can have all your shopping carts, unread emails, articles, or more grouped into clusters, which are far easier to manage with a single command.
Additionally, it can also carry out more complex tasks for you. For example, the browser has a built-in assistant example where it takes over your browser to help find hotels and flights for a vacation within specific dates.
Just enter any command, and watch as Comet navigates multiple websites, pop-ups, and any other interactions required to get you the information you need. Sure, you can use a genius Google Calendar shortcut to create meetings quickly, but having Comet take care of them still saves you time and hassle.
This AI assistant is neatly tucked away in a sidebar that can be accessed via the Assistant button in the top-right of the browser toolbar. You’ll also find buttons for voice mode, where you can just talk to the browser and tell it what to do, and a handy web page summary button that gives you a summary of the open tab.
The voice mode works fine as a conversational assistant, but if you’re doing more complicated tasks like the example above, it’s stick to the text assistant. Comet is still in beta, so this experience might improve later, but my testing so far has been hit and miss. It’d be a great feature once it’s ready, but it’s more of a fun gimmick at the time of writing.
2
It’s the fastest way to search the internet
Remember how Comet bakes in Perplextiy’s search box on the homepage? Well, that makes for excellent web searches as you no longer have to be extremely specific or use keywords for your searches. Instead of returning a list of links like your usual Google search, Comet gives you an answer with clearly cited sources.
How effective this approach is for you depends on how you search the internet. If the first thing you do after opening a browser is head to Google and type in a search query, this approach is going to be significantly faster and will likely give you more information for far less effort. Since Comet also cites its sources, you can quickly verify any suspicious facts or figures as well.
The feature seems geared towards making searching the web and researching more conversational. You can have the browser summarize lengthy articles or web pages, ask follow-ups, or simply make it break down complicated topics into an easy-to-understand explanation. For students or professionals dealing with a ton of information and running on short deadlines, this feature is a Godsend.
In summary, if you’re looking for a quick and easy-to-understand answer, Comet’s the way to go. Although it will clutter your Perplexity history, as every search is essentially a new Perplexity conversation. On the bright side, this means Comet can remember context and bring up relevant information from previous searches. Yes, the approach does make you use Perplexity significantly more and gets you to replace your search engine, but I don’t see that being a problem for most people.
1
Performance without overloading your PC
Chrome’s terrible performance and memory management have been a pain for just about every user. Regardless of how well-equipped your computer is, Chrome will start hogging system resources just a few tabs in. If you don’t have RAM to spare, this could affect your entire PC.
Comet is based on Chromium, the same engine powering Google Chrome. However, much like other Chromium-based browsers like Edge and Brave, it manages to deliver functionality without rendering your computer useless.
The ability to summarize and close unwanted tabs with AI helps quite a bit in achieving this. But even with over a dozen tabs open, the browser showed no signs of slowing down itself or my PC. Additionally, you also get a Memory Saver feature similar to most browsers that unloads inactive tabs, an Energy Saver feature that limits background activity and visual effects to save power, and a page preloading feature that automatically loads some of your most visited sites in the browser’s memory.
The browser landscape is changing quickly, and as I found out in my quest to find the perfect browser, no single browser can be labelled as a clear winner. However, if you’re sticking with Chrome, Comet and several other browsers are great alternatives that you must try out.
