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Perplexity’s Comet Aims to Usurp Chrome with AI-Powered Smartphone Push

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An agentic browser tailored for the AI age—can Perplexity’s Comet dethrone established giants like Google and Apple by harnessing the power of smartphones?

A New Rival on the Horizon

Perplexity AI, backed by heavyweight investors such as Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, SoftBank, and Eric Schmidt, has staked its ambition on Comet, an AI-first browser that seeks to upend the status quo. Officially launched in July 2025, Comet is built atop Chromium—offering familiarity for users—yet it weaponizes artificial intelligence to transform traditional browsing into a proactive experience.

In short order, this startup reached a $14 billion valuation following a $500 million Series C funding round, a testament to both investor confidence and perceived market opportunity. Comet is currently being rolled out to Perplexity’s highest-tier “Pro Max” subscribers at $200/month, alongside a curated beta cohort. The goal: ride desktop momentum into an aggressive push for mobile dominance.


Why Smartphones Are Critical

Smartphones represent the battleground for browser primacy. Today, Google Chrome commands roughly 70% of mobile browser usage, with Apple’s Safari and Samsung’s native browser capturing another 24%. That leaves minimal space for newcomers—but also immense potential for disruption, especially through default install partnerships.

In mid-2025, reports emerged that Perplexity was in talks with mobile OEMs—Samsung, Apple, Motorola, and others—to preinstall Comet as the default or optional browser on upcoming devices. A deal with Motorola is already underway, paving the way for discussions with Galaxy device makers and potentially Apple. Despite the negotiations’ nascency, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas emphasizes the challenge: “It’s not easy to convince mobile OEMs to change the default browser to Comet from Chrome.”

Still, Perplexity aims to escalate from hundreds of thousands of desktop testers to “tens to hundreds of millions” of users by 2026. Their theory: habitual phone use means that pre-installed apps, particularly defaults, gain massive adoption—even when alternatives exist.


What Sets Comet Apart

Agentic AI at the Core

What makes Comet truly stand out is its agentic browsing model: the browser doesn’t just enable search—it performs your tasks. Users can highlight a page, ask Comet to summarize, identify key points, send emails, book appointments, or even shop online—and it acts autonomously to complete these tasks. This is browsing as productivity, not navigation.

Sidebar Assistant

Comet features a persistent AI sidebar—dubbed the “Comet Assistant” or “sidecar”—that delivers contextual insights and task automation without navigating away. As a result, web interaction shifts from passive page-viewing to active engagement.

Privacy by Default

Privacy is a central pillar. Instead of relying on cloud servers, Comet processes data locally whenever possible, ensuring user inputs and browsing history aren’t used for model training unless explicitly permitted. Multiple tracking modes offer varying degrees of control, including a “strict” mode that confines all operations to the device.

Built on Chromium

Comet preserves the core features users love about Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium-based browsers—extensions, bookmarks, tab syncing—while adding its AI layer on top. This compatibility reduces onboarding friction that plagues many radical browser alternatives.


The AI Browser Arms Race

Comet isn’t alone. Google has been expanding an “AI Mode” in Chrome. OpenAI is reportedly crafting its own browser infused with GPT agents. Companies like Arc, Brave, Neeva, Opera, and The Browser Company’s Dia are racing to bring AI-native browsing to life. CEO Srinivas has argued that Google’s ad-driven model could be a disadvantage in adapting to the AI paradigm, claiming it forces the company to choose between monetization and innovation.

Critics argue that many current AI agents are glitchy—misclicking, misunderstanding intent, or compromising trust. But Perplexity insists Comet’s agentic approach, built on strong local processing, is hard for incumbents to replicate.


Monetization & Strategic Foundations

Comet’s monetization is centered around two primary pillars:

Subscription-based revenue – Comet is currently exclusive to Perplexity’s Pro Max users, with broader paid and free tiers expected later in the year across desktop and mobile.

In-browser commerce & ads – Comet’s AI can natively integrate e-commerce features—price comparisons, in-page purchases, booking platforms—creating new monetization methods that sidestep traditional ad blockers. Users may benefit from seamless experiences, while Perplexity collects referral or transaction fees.

Perplexity aims for profitability ahead of a projected IPO around 2028.


Implications For Users & Publishers

User Experience: Efficiency Meets Agency

Comet redefines browsing as task execution. Data entry, email, scheduling—these tasks, once fragmented, are now streamlined. No more search-compare-copy-paste sequences. In the words of Perplexity marketing, Comet is like “a second brain.”

Critics note, however, that over-reliance on AI agents could erode digital literacy and agency. For example, early reviewers report minor errors: Comet occasionally misinterprets page elements, needs confirmation, or takes longer than expected. But the company views these as acceptable trade-offs in an evolving UX paradigm.

Publisher & SEO Disruption

Traditional SEO—publishing content optimized for clicks—may become obsolete if AI agents summarize pages responsively. Comet’s ability to pull information directly without visiting pages could diminish pageviews and ad impressions.

Publishers are asking for stricter controls or metadata protocols to assert when AI can read and repurpose content. The dynamic will echo debates around streaming vs. linear TV, disrupt traditional ad monetization, and prompt media organizations to rethink how they engage with AI browsers.

Privacy Implications

While Comet emphasizes local processing, broader concerns remain. Tracking of inputs, demographic profiling, and data sharing often accompany AI-enabled tools. Public audits could reveal hidden data flows—a challenge Perplexity must address through transparency and oversight.


Challenges & Roadblocks

1. OEM adoption barriers
Convincing manufacturers to switch default browsers is complex. Google pays billions to companies like Samsung to maintain Chrome dominance on Android. Apple’s Safari is locked into iOS. Regulatory scrutiny of default bundling agreements may also complicate negotiations.

2. Product refinement
Comet must evolve from a clever desktop beta to a robust, high-quality product. Early feedback praises potential but highlights latency, misunderstanding, and occasional inaccuracy.

3. Publisher and regulatory pushback
Publishers may lobby for AI content usage fees or AI opt-out. Regulators could introduce guidelines around automated content access, user profiling, and cross-border data flows.

4. Competition & inertia
Google, Microsoft, and Apple have resources, developer ecosystems, and user inertia on their side. Even with AI features, persuading users to switch might require a dramatic leap in experience or value.


The Road Ahead

Timeline to Watch

  • Late 2025: Full mobile app rollout expected. OEM deals may commence confidential pilot installs.
  • Early–mid 2026: Official rollout on select Samsung or Motorola devices; possible iOS support via Comet app.
  • 2027–2028: Expansion into enterprise use, plugin marketplaces, and localization. IPO preparation continues.

Potential Industry Impact

Should Comet gain traction on mobile, even at a modest 5% switch in defaulting browsers, millions of users would be shifted. That shift could recalibrate the balance of power in search monetization, data control, and browser engineering.

Some expect Google and Apple to respond aggressively—via deals with OEMs, deepening AI features in Chrome/Safari, or even regulatory pressure to limit default changes.

User Implications

For users, the promise is enticing: faster research, smoother workflows, fewer tabs, and less friction. The value proposition of completing tasks with voice, context, and minimal input is powerful—but hinges on reliability, error-resistance, and trust.

If Comet’s agent can book flights, parse email, and summarize contracts for you—even 90% of the time—that’s transformative. The remaining shortcomings must be patched through UX design, transparency, and human-in-the-loop systems.


Conclusion: A Calculated Gamble

Comet is arguably the most ambitious challenge to browser orthodoxy in a generation. Perplexity’s vision extends beyond search—to task automation, cognitive augmentation, and intelligent defaults.

Their strategy hinges on aggressive mobile expansion—through default partnerships—while building trust by promising privacy, accuracy, and value. But the path is full of hurdles: OEM resistance, user caution, media backlash, and fierce competition.

Still, this moment feels historic. A pressure line is forming between AI-enabled experiences and the entrenched browser ecosystem. Comet is placing a bold bet: that browsing is dead; agentic interaction is the future.

If Perplexity succeeds, the browsing wars won’t just be about speed or extension support. They’ll be about agency, autonomy, and what it means to confidently ask a browser to “handle it.”


In the end, whether Comet becomes a creep of curiosity or the next mainstream browser depends on execution, trust, and the balance between automation and human control. Users may soon face pivotal choices: click or request; search or delegate; browse or accelerate.

Only time—and a few smartphone launches—will tell if Comet is Chrome’s coronation failure or just another bet that fell short in the AI-hype cycle. What’s clear is this: the browser is evolving, and Comet is hitting the accelerator.

AI Model

How to Prompt Nano Banana Pro: A Guide to Creating High-Quality Images with Google’s AI

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Why Nano Banana Pro Matters

Nano Banana Pro is Google DeepMind’s most advanced image generation model, built on the powerful Gemini 3 Pro architecture. It delivers high-resolution outputs (up to 4K), understands complex prompts with layered context, and performs exceptionally well when generating realistic lighting, textures, and dynamic scenes. It also supports image referencing — letting you upload photos or designs to guide the visual consistency.

In short, it’s not just a toy — it’s a tool for designers, marketers, illustrators, and creatives who want to build professional-grade images fast. But to unlock its full potential, you need to learn how to prompt it properly.


Prompting Basics: Clarity Beats Cleverness

The secret to powerful results isn’t trickery — it’s clarity. Nano Banana Pro doesn’t need keyword spam or obscure syntax. It needs you to be specific and structured.

Here are the key rules to follow:

  • Be descriptive, not vague: Instead of “a cat,” write something like “a ginger British shorthair cat sitting on a marble countertop under soft morning light.
  • Layer your descriptions: Include details about the subject, setting, atmosphere, materials, lighting, style, and mood.
  • State your format: Tell the model if you want a photo, digital painting, cinematic frame, 3D render, infographic, comic panel, etc.
  • Use reference images: Nano Banana Pro supports multiple uploads — useful for matching styles, poses, faces, characters, or branding.

This is how professionals prompt: not by hacking the system, but by being precise about what they want.


Crafting Prompts by Use Case

📸 Realistic Photography

Want a product photo, fashion portrait, or cinematic still? Then your prompt should include lens type, lighting style, subject age, composition, and color grading.

Example:

Professional studio portrait of a 35-year-old woman in natural light, soft cinematic lighting, shallow depth of field, 85mm lens look, natural skin tones, soft shadows, clean background, editorial style.

Another example:

A 3/4 view of a red sports car parked in a luxury driveway at golden hour, realistic reflections, soft shadows, DSLR-style image, bokeh background.

These prompt structures help the model replicate not just the subject but the feel of a professionally shot image.


🎨 Illustration, Comic Art, and 3D Concepts

If you want stylized work — like a retro comic, anime-style character, or matte painting — the style must be part of the prompt.

Example:

Comic-style wide cinematic illustration, bold black outlines, flat vibrant colors, halftone dot shading, a heroic female astronaut on Mars with a pink sky, dramatic lighting, wide aspect ratio.

More styles to try:

  • Fantasy concept art, a medieval knight riding a dragon above stormy mountains, painted in the style of Frank Frazetta, high detail, dramatic lighting.
  • Cyberpunk anime character in a rain-soaked Tokyo alley, glowing neon lights, futuristic fashion, overhead perspective, digital painting.

Tip: Reference known artistic styles (e.g., Art Nouveau, Impressionism, Pixar, Studio Ghibli) to guide the tone.


🔄 Editing Existing Images

Nano Banana Pro can also transform existing images by changing backgrounds, lighting, or adding/removing objects.

Examples:

Replace the background with a rainy city street at night, reflect soft blue and orange lights on the subject, keep original pose and composition, cinematic tone.

Add a glowing book in the subject’s hands, soft magical light cast on their face, night-time indoor setting.

Best practices:

  • Use clear “before/after” language.
  • Indicate what must stay unchanged.
  • Specify the mood or lighting effect you want added.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Too generic: A prompt like “a girl standing” tells the model almost nothing. Who is she? Where is she? What’s the style?
  • Keyword stuffing: Don’t use outdated tricks like “masterpiece, ultra-detailed, trending on ArtStation.” They’re mostly ignored.
  • Ignoring context: Don’t forget to describe how elements relate (e.g. “holding a glowing orb” vs. “glowing orb floating behind her”).
  • Unclear intent for text/logos: If you want branded material, say exactly what the logo or label should look like, and where.

Prompt Templates You Can Use Right Now

Try adapting these for your needs:

  • “Cinematic 4K photo of a mountain climber reaching the summit at sunrise, orange glow on snowy peaks, lens flare, dramatic sky.”
  • “Retro-futuristic 3D render of a diner on Mars, neon signs, dusty surface, stars in the background, warm ambient light.”
  • “Isometric vector-style infographic showing renewable energy sources, solar, wind, hydro, with icons and labels.”
  • “Realistic photo of a smartwatch product on a floating glass platform, minimalistic white background, soft shadows.”

These prompts are short but rich in visual instruction — and that’s the key to strong output.


Going Further: Advanced Prompting Tips

  • Use cinematic language: Words like “soft light,” “overhead shot,” “close-up,” “medium angle,” “shallow depth of field” guide the AI like a film director.
  • Test with reference images: Upload an image of your brand, product, or character to maintain continuity.
  • Iterate: If your first image isn’t right, adjust one or two variables (e.g., lighting, background, subject age) and regenerate.
  • Define aspect ratios: Use “cinematic,” “vertical portrait,” “square crop” if you need a specific format.
  • Stay natural: Write prompts like you’re briefing a professional illustrator or photographer.

Final Thoughts

Nano Banana Pro is one of the most powerful visual AI tools available — but it’s only as good as your prompts. Whether you’re an art director, a solo founder, or a content creator, learning to prompt well is the fastest way to unlock its full creative range.

Focus on clarity, visual language, and style specificity. Add references when needed. Think like a photographer, art director, or storyteller. The better your brief, the better the image.

Want more? Ask for our expanded prompt pack: 50+ ready-made formulas across categories like product design, sci-fi art, fantasy scenes, infographics, editorial portraits, and more.

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Qwen vs. ChatGPT — Which AI Assistant is Better — and For What

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Why This Comparison Matters Now

Qwen, the large language model developed by Alibaba Cloud, has recently been gaining significant attention. The release of Qwen 2.5-Max and its successors has sparked comparisons across benchmarks covering reasoning, coding, long-context handling, and multimodal tasks. Meanwhile, ChatGPT continues to dominate as the default choice for many users who prioritize conversational quality, creative tasks, and ease of use. Comparing the two is increasingly important for anyone deciding where to invest their time, money, or infrastructure in 2025.

Let’s explore how Qwen and ChatGPT compare across major performance categories — and which model might suit your needs better.


Where Qwen Shines: Power, Context, and Flexibility

One of Qwen’s strongest features is its ability to handle long-context reasoning and document-heavy workflows. With larger context windows than many competitors, Qwen is particularly adept at analyzing long reports, writing consistent long-form content, summarizing legal or technical material, and managing multi-layered input without losing coherence. It’s a powerful tool for users who need depth.

Qwen also excels in structured logic and code-related tasks. In independent evaluations, it has shown impressive results in mathematical reasoning, data extraction, and code generation. For developers and technical users looking for an AI assistant to support real engineering workflows — rather than simply explain code snippets — Qwen is a highly capable alternative to established incumbents.

Multimodal and multilingual flexibility is another area where Qwen stands out. It supports text, image input, and multiple languages, enabling it to serve as a true assistant across varied communication and media formats. That’s particularly useful for global users or teams operating in bilingual or multilingual environments.

Finally, the open-source accessibility of Qwen is a major advantage. While not every version is fully open, many variants are freely available and can be run locally or fine-tuned. For users prioritizing data control, customization, or cost-efficiency, that’s a serious point in Qwen’s favor.


Where ChatGPT Excels: Conversation, Creativity, and Ecosystem

ChatGPT continues to lead when it comes to polish and user experience. Its conversational flow is smooth, stylistically natural, and often feels more human than any other model on the market. That’s invaluable for creative writing, ideation, storytelling, or any application that requires tone, style, and nuance. It’s also why many casual users prefer ChatGPT over more technical models.

ChatGPT’s integration with live data, APIs, and tools (depending on the version) provides a dynamic and extensible platform for users who need real-time insights or app-level functionality. If you’re looking for an assistant that can browse the web, generate code, search documentation, or plug into third-party services, ChatGPT is often the more mature choice.

Consistency, reliability, and safety mechanisms also remain a strength. For teams or individuals who don’t want to think about model drift, hallucination tuning, or backend parameters, ChatGPT offers a plug-and-play solution that’s hard to beat. It’s a tool that just works — and that simplicity matters more than benchmark scores for a wide audience.

The scale and maturity of ChatGPT’s ecosystem also give it a clear edge. From community guides to business integrations, apps, and workflows — it’s supported nearly everywhere, and that makes it easy to adopt regardless of your skill level.


Limitations and Trade-offs

That said, Qwen and ChatGPT each come with their own trade-offs.

Qwen, while powerful, sometimes lacks the fluency or stylistic finesse that makes ChatGPT feel so natural. It can hallucinate in edge cases, and while some versions are open-source, the most powerful iterations may still depend on Alibaba’s infrastructure, limiting portability for privacy-centric users.

ChatGPT, for its part, is a closed model, with cost barriers and fewer customization options. It also has a more constrained context window in some versions, making it less ideal for ultra-long documents or advanced reasoning across large data structures.


Which Model Should You Use?

If your work involves processing long documents, building tools, working with code, or requiring multilingual support — and you value the ability to run models locally or integrate them deeply — Qwen is an excellent fit. Its performance is strong, and it offers more technical freedom for advanced users.

If your needs are creative, conversational, or content-driven — and you want something intuitive, responsive, and polished out of the box — ChatGPT is still the best experience available today. It’s perfect for brainstorming, writing, email generation, and any task where clarity, creativity, and tone matter.

For enterprise teams, researchers, and power users — using both might be the optimal solution. Qwen can handle the heavy lifting in development and data, while ChatGPT takes care of interaction, presentation, and ideation.


Final Verdict

There’s no absolute winner in the Qwen vs. ChatGPT debate — only better fits for different tasks. Qwen brings muscle, flexibility, and context awareness. ChatGPT delivers fluency, elegance, and seamless usability.

In the AI race of 2025, the smartest move isn’t to pick a side — it’s to pick the right tool for the job.

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Alibaba’s AI Coup: Qwen App Hits 10 Million Downloads in One Week — And the AI Wars Just Escalated

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A Meteoric Debut for Qwen

Alibaba’s freshly launched Qwen app has crossed 10 million downloads in just its first seven days — a staggering adoption rate that places it among the fastest-growing AI applications globally. The explosive start signals more than consumer interest. It marks Alibaba’s transition from infrastructure giant to serious AI contender in the public arena.

Qwen Isn’t Just Another Chatbot

At the core of Qwen’s early success is its engine: the Qwen model family, developed in-house by Alibaba. These large language models (LLMs) are multimodal — capable of processing not just text, but also images, audio, and potentially video. Unlike other AI tools that remain sandboxed in niche applications, Qwen is designed as a true all-in-one assistant.

From drafting documents and summarizing reports to answering questions and managing multimedia tasks, Qwen is built to be useful — not just entertaining. And critically, it launched with a free-access model, eliminating the subscription paywall that often hinders adoption in early-stage AI apps.

From E-Commerce to Everyday AI

This launch represents a clear strategic pivot for Alibaba. Historically known for e-commerce dominance and its powerful cloud infrastructure (via Alibaba Cloud), the company is now positioning itself as a top-tier player in the AI space — not just at the backend, but at the consumer-facing layer.

Qwen is not just a product — it’s a platform play. It ties into Alibaba’s cloud resources, shopping ecosystem, productivity tools, and eventually, financial services. By releasing it as a standalone, viral consumer app, Alibaba is laying the groundwork for a much bigger AI ecosystem play.

Global AI Ambitions, Starting in Asia

While Qwen’s initial rollout is concentrated in China and Southeast Asia, there are clear signs Alibaba intends to push the app globally. With Western alternatives like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini facing geopolitical and regulatory barriers in some regions, Qwen could capitalize on being both regionally accessible and locally optimized.

Additionally, the app’s early traction reflects strong demand for AI solutions tailored to regional languages, customs, and ecosystems. As Chinese tech continues to look outward, Qwen may become a cultural as well as a technological export — one capable of competing head-to-head with the biggest names in global AI.

The Next Phase: Monetization and Market Power

Crossing 10 million downloads in a week is only the first milestone. The real test lies in retention, monetization, and integration. Alibaba will now focus on converting casual users into power users, offering advanced features, integrating payments, cloud-based services, and potentially leveraging the app to strengthen its broader commercial footprint.

There is already speculation that Qwen could evolve into the “WeChat of AI” — a super-assistant that combines messaging, productivity, shopping, and finance in a single intelligent interface. If that vision materializes, Alibaba may have just positioned itself as the most powerful AI consumer company outside the West.

Final Thought

The Qwen launch is not just about downloads. It’s about direction. Alibaba has made its move — not with hype or vague roadmaps, but with a working, useful, and widely adopted AI assistant. The global AI race is officially more competitive than ever.

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