Perplexity's CEO, Aravind Srinivas, recently appeared on the TBPN podcast and spoke about the company's strategy, including the upcoming Comet web browser. He revealed that one reason Perplexity is building its own browser is to collect data on everything users do online to better understand them and serve "hyper personalized" advertisements.
If you do not know what Perplexity is, it is an AI-powered answer engine that synthesizes information from the web and provides cited summaries, aiming to give users direct answers rather than just a list of links.
Srinivas explained that the information gleaned from searches within the Perplexity app is often work-related or lacks the depth needed to build a comprehensive user profile. He said on the podcast:
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. Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It is not like that's personal.
Collecting data on browsing habits, purchasing history, travel plans, and dining preferences, according to Srinivas, "tells us so much more about you." He believes this additional context, gathered outside the app via the Comet browser, is essential for creating highly relevant ads. He also added:
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.
Perplexity’s decision to develop its own browser and emphasize wide-scale data collection puts it in direct competition with Google’s main advertising business. This approach is especially notable in light of the ongoing Google antitrust trial, where the Department of Justice has proposed that Google should be required to sell off Chrome, its leading browser. Both Perplexity and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, have openly stated they would be interested in buying Chrome if it goes up for sale.
The Comet browser has reportedly faced delays but is now targeted for a mid-May launch. Srinivas sees it as the "real second product" for Perplexity, beyond the core answer engine and mobile app experiences.
Source: TechCrunch
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