Comet
Comet is Perplexity's web browser with an AI assistant built in, which can research, compare and carry out tasks for you.
Comet is a web browser made by Perplexity, with an AI assistant built in. Perplexity describes it as the browser that works for you: it can research the web, sort your email, and take on tasks like shopping. It runs on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.
For a marketer, the interesting part is that the browser itself reads your pages and acts for the person. Someone can ask Comet to compare three coffee subscriptions, and the assistant visits the sites, reads them and reports back.
What it means for your site
When an assistant does the browsing, your pages need to work for a machine as well as for a person. Prices, delivery areas and plan details should be in the page's text, easy to find, and readable without clicking through tabs or waiting for scripts.
For example, someone asks Comet to find a coffee subscription under £20 a month that delivers to Scotland. Fernhill's delivery areas are only in an image of a map. Kestrel's are listed in plain text. The assistant can confirm Kestrel and has to guess about Fernhill.
Browsers as agents
Comet is one of a group of AI browsers and AI agents that act on a person's behalf. Along with answering, they carry out the steps a person would have taken: open the pages, compare them, fill in the form.
That makes the basics of crawlability matter more, because the assistant may be the only one reading your page before a decision is made.
In AnswerOrbit
We don't track Comet. We ask Perplexity's own app, along with the other five platforms we track. AI agents working privately for one person are one of the things we can't see. See How we count.