Since Perplexity’s announcement this February, the tech world has been waiting for the company’s browser, Comet – AI-powered Browser. Now, Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, has revealed that the company plans to use Comet to collect contextualized data from users to serve them strategically-placed content. He also added that these data pipelines will be used to customize the ads that you see on the Discover feed.
“That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you… We plan to use all the context to build a better user profile and, maybe you know, through our discover feed we could show some ads there,” Srinivas was quoted as saying in the podcast.
According to this plan, Comet will collect as many details as possible about the user and create personalized advertising profiles. This data will help the company to sell premium ad spaces, which offer better conversion compared to the generic ads one sees on Google Search or Facebook. He also added that Perplexity cannot build a personalized profile on its own because most people use the AI platform for work-related prompts.
This strategy from the Perplexity CEO comes at a time when Google Chrome is facing fire from the DOJ for its alleged antitrust violation practices. Considering that Google Chrome has been one of the most significant sources of data collection for Google, the company’s ad business will face some setbacks if it is forced to sell Chrome to a third party.
OpenAI and Perplexity have already shown interest in purchasing the browser if it becomes available. But it seems Perplexity does not want to wait for this chance. Instead, it has decided to widen the potential through partnerships. One such collaboration was with Motorola, some of whose devices will pack Perplexity as the default AI assistant.
Considering that almost all tech giants—including Meta, Google, and even Apple—use advertising as a source of revenue, the move from Perplexity is not really surprising. However, claims from Aravind Srinivas do not have the best optics, either, especially when people are concerned about fingerprinting and tracking across the web. It needs to be seen how privacy-conscious users will receive Comet.
Comet was planned to have its launch by now, but the development has been delayed. The Perplexity CEO, however, assured that Comet will be available in May 2025.
