Personal Finance Topics / Macroeconomic Trends and Risks❤
No. of Recommendations: 4
We're all aware of the new trend of starting search with AI instead of a traditional search engine like Google. You probably heard the Perplexity made an unsolicited offer to buy Chrome.¹ However, Perplexity already has its own web browser called Comet. I decided to download and give it try. It is able import your bookmarks and has a few widgets on the home page, but otherwise seems like a normal browser. If you click a bookmark if will open the bookmark in the browser, as you'd expect a browser to do.
If you search on a specific topic, it gives a few links to webpages, and then provides an AI result beneath. So it is a lot like simply searching from an AI engine. In addition to that, it has the Comet Assistant, which can summarize webpages and videos, manage your calendar, fill up your shopping cart based on recipes and such. A drawback though is that it doesn't have access to Google password manager. That's a bit of a barrier.
Overall it is pretty slick. However, I just don't need that much AI horsepower. I'll just continue to use Chrome and then an AI when needed. And Chrome itself is becoming an AI browser. I do have a couple Comet invites if anyone would like them.
¹
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/technology/perp...
No. of Recommendations: 0
Google Chrome search is still growing. The AI search is like all other search engines, just another divide in the market. YouTube was such a divide and Chrome never suffered because of it.
I have a product website that is not hurting. I have moved to be an early target for AI search.
AI search is not making much headway into product search.
The bloggers, or informational websites, are losing this war. AI search is eating their lunch using their materials against them.
No. of Recommendations: 2
OK - so I'm always willing to try something new, so I took sykesix up on the offer to try perplexity.
Installation was simple (though the sign-on mechanism had me using Google for credentials. While I also could have used X or Facebook, it goes against my paranoia to share anyone's credentials with anyone else, but "la vie" they say.
It pulled in my bookmarks from Chrome and the user interface was as expected (the same as if I owned a Ford and then sat in a Chevy to drive it for the first time).
So, how the heck do you test an AI? (Damned if I know).
I'm putting together a trip next year which (among other things) includes about a month in Japan and I had already asked both ChatGPT and Copilot (Microsoft AI) for a two-day walking tour oof Kanazawa, Japan, so I put the task to Perplexity. It was fast and created a more interesting version, complete with photos of each site (though I didn't ask for that). I then asked for a two-day walking tour to another location (Busan, Korea) and it did well, but curiously the output had a very different look/feel. To be honest, I haven't back-checked any of the tours to see if they were simply plagiarized from an existing one on the web (while life is short, it might be a worthwhile experiment). I do know that when I asked ChatGPT to "rewrite" a travel essay of mine (a number of times, with slightly different preference instructions - to see if it could remove redundancy, run-on sentences and such), it insisted on inserting additional anecdotes about what I supposedly did and then insisted on repeating them from version to version.
I then asked it to solve a simple math problem which had tied both ChatGPT and Copilot in knots. They kept trying to convince me that 2+2=5 and similar stupidity while presenting what they thought were correct answers (recently, when I tried ChatGPT version 5 on Poe, it took about a minute after I complained to solve it by brute force. Perplexity took a couple of seconds to write small bit of python code and presented the correct solution immediately.
BTW, see how long it takes you to solve the following (which requires only the math skills you learned in junior high school):
Take the numbers 2, 4, 6 and 8. Use each one time. You can add, subtract, multiply and divide (no factorials, exponentials or fancy stuff). Create an equation which equals 25
So "Thank You" sykesix
Jeff
PS: When you get tired of trying to figure this out, ask either Perplexity or me for the answer :-)
No. of Recommendations: 6
(6+2/8)*4
No. of Recommendations: 0
So, how the heck do you test an AI? (Damned if I know).
AI search pulls in information based on citations.
Conventional search looks at context for keywords.
Of interest, People can no longer copy Google AI search results and paste them elsewhere. That feature is no longer functional. The uncopyrighted results are not transferable.
No. of Recommendations: 0
" People can no longer copy Google AI search results and paste them elsewhere. "
To those who require thiis capability, Abbyy Screenshot Reader might be a useful tool
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 0
Jeff,
I was thinking that, but mostly have decided that paraphrasing is a more natural way of screening what is posted by me. Instead of lengthy replies I make the point I want. It narrow a conversation down to the meat and potatoes. If I am wrong I am bound to learn more and visa versa for the readers. Digressing does not offer that.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Of interest, People can no longer copy Google AI search results and paste them elsewhere. That feature is no longer functional. The uncopyrighted results are not transferable.
I just tried this and it copied fine.
No. of Recommendations: 0
Thanks for pointing that out. It is now working again for me.
