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Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

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Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#101

Post by __rito__ »

beoberha wrote: post #57

Anyone here use perplexity? I’ve tried numerous times, but once you get over the flashy UI, it feels like a lot of fluff.

Even during ChatGPT peak, when HN was buzzing with every other post being how ChatGPT/other LLM product replaced Google for them, I could not honestly switch, or meaningfully reduce my Google usage.

Until Perplexity.

It was the AI product that actually reduced my Google usage. Even with AI mode directly built into Google homepage now, Perplexity is still better.

It has basically zero hallucination, each para/entry backed by a URL, and lower latentcy than any other LLM product.

I don't know why you find it bad. I use it daily, and for serious searches.

It has fundamentally changed the way I search the web/ask questions in the web. One particular way: I can now combine multiple subsequent searches into one. And I can trust the results.

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#102

Post by cesarvarela »

Aren't people just asking Claude and/or Gpt to do web searches instead?

I had for quite some time only relied on o3 pro for every query and it always defaulted to web search so hallucination rate was (seemingly) very low.

Now I'm using Claude more and he (it?) needs to be reminded that it he has a web saerch tool but other than that it works great.

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#103

Post by Hamuko »

trentnix wrote: post #76
sudenmorsian wrote: post #5

If there was any company that I would trust less with a web browser (and related user data) than an ad-tech company, it would be an AI company.

Isn't Perplexity the AI company that has been accused of ignoring robots.txt and requests not to data harvest?

It is. They do go further than just ignoring robots.txt too.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/perplexity-is-using-stealth-unde...

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#104

Post by polypolypoly2 »

dismalaf wrote: post #59
bigmadshoe wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google pretty clearly has a monopoly on search though, and their ownership of Android + the #1 web browser in the world maintains this. I don't think a new fork of Webkit would change this argument.

Let's not forget that during the trial it was established that Bing's top search is "google"... MS literally forces Edge and Bing on users yet they'll seek out Google and Chrome.

[dead]

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#105

Post by ac130kz »

Are they out of their minds? How can a tiny startup without their own actual product (nowadays anyone can strap OpenAI/Anthropic API or fork open source models, such as Deepseek, on top of web scraping) buy the largest browser used by billions made by a company making trillions?

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#106

Post by twelvedogs »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #47
jrecursive wrote: post #16

NAL, but IMO it's legal & political maneuvering. DOJ asked Judge Mehta to consider forcing divestiture of Chrome after Google was found to illegally maintained a search monopoly. If it's determined the divestiture is feasible, especially with an existing more-or-less "credible buyer" at the ready, it looks executable. The offer is basically crafted to fit the DOJ/regulator concerns, ie everything is build around "lea…

Unless Google is banned from providing a browser entirely, they'll just re-fork Webkit and release another browser, and it will very quickly replace Chrome usage. Especially on Android - which is the most used OS in the world. It seems strange to ban Google from offering a Search Engine, when all the other big tech companies can get into any field just fine, but the legal system is primarily a weapon for corruption t…

It's not about stopping people from making a browser and a search engine and tying them together, it's about abusing your web browser monopoly to promote your search monopoly (and vice versa) to keep competition out

The rules apply to everyone it's just that no one else has a search or browser monopoly

Microsoft had a browser monopoly at one point and it should have happened to them but they generously pissed it away

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#108

Post by fsflover »

internet_points wrote: post #45
aliljet wrote: post #21

For the simple minded among us, can someone explain why this would be worth 34.5 billion dollars? Wouldn't the fork ( https://www.perplexity.ai/comet ) be sufficient?

If they buy Chrome, they can change the default search on a web browser used by half the planet.

But will it be legal?

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#109

Post by viccis »

sofixa wrote: post #87
viccis wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My tax dollars are already funding genocide, so for like 10 cents to go towards Yandex a month, of which some fraction goes towards Russia's quixotic war effort (which is an international crime but not a genocide in intent or effect), is not something that's gonna keep me up at night. Almost every other purchase I make comes with harm roughly commensurate with that of Kagi. The damage to the environment Perplexity an…

> which is an international crime but not a genocide in intent or effect) Why not? Russia has kidnapped hundreds of thousands of children, gives them for adoption to Russians, and claims that Ukrainians are just confused Russians. If it smells like a genocide, fits the definition of genocide... it's a genocide. > The damage to the environment Perplexity and Google (and Kagi) cause with unnecessary AI usage is a much…

Sorry, but this is not really enough of a concern to care about 2% of a $5 monthly fee going towards a company (Yandex) whose involvement with Russia's war seems iffy (Russia themselves fined the company for refusing to give user data to its state intelligence).

>Multiple things can be damaging at once.

Yes, but the point is that if I can tolerate some of the money Google or Amazon gets from me going to fund concentration camps abroad, in which camp residents receive a quarter of the calories per day (~250) that victims of Nazi concentration camps did, then I can tolerate this. Everyone has to draw a line somewhere, and I see no reason to draw it at Kagi but not Google/AWS/Microsoft/Apple/etc.

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#110

Post by Zambyte »

lukaslevert wrote: post #62
Zambyte wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perplexity is also an ad-tech company.

That has yet to do any successful ads at scale**

I would be extremely surprised if they don't get kickback through their existing shopping features. It's just well integrated, so it doesn't look like advertisements.
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