Perplexity, an AI search engine, also continues meteorically rising: In May the new search engine logged 780 million queries and it does so with a steady growth of 20% per month, according to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas at Bloomberg’s Tech Summit.
It received 150 million daily queries around the time of Isaac’s demise which is up from just 30 million earlier this year and even from a mere 3,000 queries on its first day back last year. Srinivas ambitiously plans that, if that growth continues, the platform will be able to process a billion queries per week within a year.
From an answer engine to ‘Cognitive OS’ browser
It’s actually fueling Perplexity’s next big move: Its new browser Comet which aims to be more than a search tool. It was described by Srinivas as a “cognitive operating system” that sees AI do more than provide answers, but rather perform entire browsing sessions on behalf of users.
Users will be able to prompt Comet only once instead of typing multiple queries and the AI will be able to explore, filter the results and even make purchases all in one go. Comet simultaneously performs client side and cloud side processing for the best user experience , said Srinivas. Perplexity will also be able to obtain a full spectrum of browser signals to support premium ad targeting à la Google’s data driven ad play, since Perplexity’s own standalone assistant can’t.
Strategy to use for leverage and monetization
Perplexity’s bigger ecosystem play is centred around a browser strategy. Perplexity is getting infinite users engagements by embedding Comet as a default or primary browser interface which gives more daily queries and more retention.
This results in more ad impressions and monetizable behavior data.
Furthermore, that deeper integration would allow Perplexity to knock heads with Big Tech and specifically to face Google directly should the chromium dragon be scaly enough to defend its browser crown under antitrust dynamics. But so ended The Great Chromium Incident of 2015 and Srinivas hinted to The Register Perplexity could step in to run Chromium, but open source stewardship, if such a thing happens.
The future
Comments from social media reveal that Srinivas confirmed that Comet is confirmed to launch in between three to five weeks.
What we can expect as initial features would be virtual meeting recording, transcriptions and as well as seamless search features.
Interestingly enough, Perplexity is also sharpening existing features: its latest Perplexity Labs for partners employs AI workflows to produce reports, dashboards and interactive spreadsheets for subscribers.
On the other hand, it’s partnering with Motorola to bring its AI assistant to Android devices in Razr Ultra devices; and PayPal, so that users can make in session transactions.
