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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

#61

These marketing stunts from Perplexity made me stop using their product. For me, it's an indicator that they don't believe in their product, so there's no reason for me to do it either.

I've tried to use Perplexity after reading all of the hype, seeing it praised by so many VCs, and seeing it appear on so many different lists of essential AI tools. Yet most of my Perplexity queries have produced poor results. It always feels like they optimized for minimizing latency and producing output that feels good instead of doing actual research. Most of the time it feels like the same quality of results I'd…

Really? I’ve found it to be a fantastic product, and a part of my daily use.

It’s reduced my legacy search engine usage significantly.

Is there a better product? ChatGPT with web search enabled?

I guess Google’s AI is probably good, I just haven’t used Google in a while as I switched to DuckDuckGo.

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#62
post #15

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.

Perplexity is also an ad-tech company.

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

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#64

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…

> Especially on Android - which is the most used OS in the world.

In the EU, they're forced to ask you which browser and which search engine you want.

> 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 these days, so who knows.

Letting one instance of blatant anti competitive and anti consumer behaviour fly because others are allowed isn't the way to go. Google are a bit monopolistic abuser, fix that. Apple are too? Good, that's the next job.

> I mean, sure, if you want to start limiting what big companies do, and there's some fairness in how it's applied, fine.

> But that's not what will happen.

That's how the EU is approaching with the DMA and DSA.

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#65

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…

Presumably they would include a clause they can't do that? If not, why wouldn't they simply fork Chromium if they haven't already. They must be bargaining that there will be some lockout period and regulatory scrutiny that would prevent them from immeadiately rebranding chrome and repointing all the download links to a new repo.

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#66

These marketing stunts from Perplexity made me stop using their product. For me, it's an indicator that they don't believe in their product, so there's no reason for me to do it either.

Which web search do you prefer over perplexity?

Google

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#67

These marketing stunts from Perplexity made me stop using their product. For me, it's an indicator that they don't believe in their product, so there's no reason for me to do it either.

Are they truly marketing stunts? I mean I guess they could just fork Chromium instead.

Yes they are. They did it with their bid to buy TikTok which went no where.

Perplexity already has a browser. At this point, this is complete desperation from them for attention.

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried to use Perplexity after reading all of the hype, seeing it praised by so many VCs, and seeing it appear on so many different lists of essential AI tools. Yet most of my Perplexity queries have produced poor results. It always feels like they optimized for minimizing latency and producing output that feels good instead of doing actual research. Most of the time it feels like the same quality of results I'd…

Really? I’ve found it to be a fantastic product, and a part of my daily use. It’s reduced my legacy search engine usage significantly. Is there a better product? ChatGPT with web search enabled? I guess Google’s AI is probably good, I just haven’t used Google in a while as I switched to DuckDuckGo.

Same, it outshines Gemini and ChatGPT and hallucinates far less. The tone is less eager too, making it feel more tolerable as a tool rather than an unpaid assistant

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#69

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.

Basically anyone who would want to make an offer for Chrome should be banned for purchasing it.

It's not a profitable business to be in, and Perplexity would just do the exact same thing that might force Google to sell Chrome.

The only companies that should be allowed to buy Chrome are non-profits and companies promising to sell it for a fee (preferably not a subscription).

Re: Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome

#70
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source for this? I would be crestfallen because Kagi has been such a good product for me for the past year or so.

https://kagifeedback.org/d/5445-reconsider-yandex-integratio... tl;dr: It's way overblown. One of their search integration partners is a large Russian company (Yandex).

I don't disagree with the gist of their argument, but the fact that they try to whitewash an actual genocide [1] with "politics" is absurd.

1 - if anyone is confused, the UN convention on genocide explicitly lists taking children of an ethnic group to give them to another in the definition of genocide. Russia is quite openly and blatantly doing this.

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