Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome(wsj.com)
wsj.com
Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome
https://www.wsj.com/tech/perplexity-makes-longshot-34-5-billion-offer-for-chrome-5ddb7a22
128 comments
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 "least disruptive": keeping Google the default search engine, etc. Furthermore, just by doing this, they are putting ideas out there about what an "acceptable buyer" is and puts a number to the discussion about "what Chrome is worth". Purely remedies chess and an attempt to own the narrative. Google's going to say no, at least as-is, but this certainly throws a wrench in the works. Lots more moves to be made.
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 these days, so who knows.
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.
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 these days, so who knows.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
MS literally forces Edge and Bing on users yet they'll seek out Google and Chrome.
Had. Google search doesn't find things any more.
They lose the brand so that's the most important part. And chrome has far divestd from chromium in all the important ways Google makes money. It'd take years for chrome to to lose its marketshare even if Google had a chrome clone made tomorrow.
If anything, they may try to start from scratch, like with Fuschia. In which case the anti-trust was a success in making companies compete again.
If anything, they may try to start from scratch, like with Fuschia. In which case the anti-trust was a success in making companies compete again.
> 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.
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.
And in the EU, there's little difference in Chrome & Google market share on Android.
It's almost as if people actually like Google's products.
It's almost as if people actually like Google's products.
You can use multiple browsers. Even my non-technical SO does, with no input from me.
That would show up in market share.
If you're assuming the vast majority of European users don't use Chrome except when tricked by Google to game MAUs - it would show up in usage that the vast majority of European Android users are regularly using a different browser.
There's hardly a difference compared to RoW.
If you're assuming the vast majority of European users don't use Chrome except when tricked by Google to game MAUs - it would show up in usage that the vast majority of European Android users are regularly using a different browser.
There's hardly a difference compared to RoW.
I have to use multiple web browsers, and what doesn't work on Firefox works on Chrome or Edge, and vice versa.
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 get from skimming the top of the Google search page summaries if I didn't filter out the spammy site.
The product could be more useful if it spent several minutes researching, but that would defeat the wow factor that I'm sure their product managers are prioritizing.
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 get from skimming the top of the Google search page summaries if I didn't filter out the spammy site.
The product could be more useful if it spent several minutes researching, but that would defeat the wow factor that I'm sure their product managers are prioritizing.
Perplexity had a business case for one hot minute there, before OAI, Anthropic and Google all added search to their models, but now that have it, Perplexity doesn’t have a reason to exist anymore. They’re kind of the poster child for “if you don’t have your own model, you’re basically VC-funded market fit research for the companies which do, who will go on to copy and crush you.”
Hard disagree.
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.
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.
But not every time it shows a source and doesn’t stop when it doesn’t find the data
Answers irrespective
Answers irrespective
It sounds like you need to be using the research function, which takes ~3 minutes but does a much more in depth search to find more relevant data.
3 minutes is too long for exploratory searches, where I'm not sure what I'm even looking for. And 3 minutes feels too short for deep research which I'm expected to trust some complex result which I either don't know enough about myself (that's why I'm searching for it) or know enough about to the point that AI probably can't do something that I already couldn't within a couple minutes.
I think the sweet spot for AI results is around 10-30 seconds. It's fast enough that I'm willing to wait for the results even if I'm not sure I'm exploring the right topic. And it's also fast enough that even if I knew what to search for, it can give me summarized results faster than I could read on my own.
I think the sweet spot for AI results is around 10-30 seconds. It's fast enough that I'm willing to wait for the results even if I'm not sure I'm exploring the right topic. And it's also fast enough that even if I knew what to search for, it can give me summarized results faster than I could read on my own.
Hm, I'd think, AI aside, that if 3 minutes is too long for an exploratory research, that's not going to be good quality exploratory research...
I remember when the hype first started around it, it was unusably slow, and produced poor results. Granted, I haven't tried it lately to see if latency improved, but the hype versus product state at the time, really turned me off from the product.
Same experience. Maybe I was using it wrong, but it always returned some outdated results, not even completely related to my query.
I think the UX is good and could imagine it being applied well to a much better research tool.
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.
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.
I second this. Perplexity is the only AI I actually pay for. It absolutely excels at the kind of deep search into narrow domains where expertise is concentrated in forums and specialist sites. Things like mechanical work on obscure classic vehicles, vacuum tube electronics, company tax arcana. It's also very very good at those questions you sometimes wake up with, where something happened in the news six months ago and you think, "Whatever came of that?"
Its deep research and Pro modes are great at synthesizing thorough briefings on complex topics too, to get up to speed on a new client or job responsibility for example.
It's not a chatbot for me, it's a brilliant, tireless little research minion.
As always with any LLM you should double-check its final, specific answers. It does occasionally hallucinate when information simply isn't available. Your research minion is just that - a minion, you have to have the context. It's not a teacher or guru.
EDIT: the bottom line is, it came along at exactly the right time for me. Google's search results are pages of ads, and DuckDuckGo insists on showing page after page of content-farm blogspam for the types of topics I search for. It cuts right through all that crap for me.
Its deep research and Pro modes are great at synthesizing thorough briefings on complex topics too, to get up to speed on a new client or job responsibility for example.
It's not a chatbot for me, it's a brilliant, tireless little research minion.
As always with any LLM you should double-check its final, specific answers. It does occasionally hallucinate when information simply isn't available. Your research minion is just that - a minion, you have to have the context. It's not a teacher or guru.
EDIT: the bottom line is, it came along at exactly the right time for me. Google's search results are pages of ads, and DuckDuckGo insists on showing page after page of content-farm blogspam for the types of topics I search for. It cuts right through all that crap for me.
> As always with any LLM you should double-check its final, specific answers. It does occasionally hallucinate when information simply isn't available.
It also sometimes completely botches it when information is available. For example a while back someone cited Musk only scoring 730 on the math SAT as evidence that there is something from with the test.
I looked up Musk's age to figure out about when he would have taken the SAT then asked Perplexity what percentile a 760 would have been then. It gave me an answer that as far as I can tell was right (~90th).
I then wondered what my percentile was, so asked it what percentile 790 would have been when I took it. It told me it would have been 17.something, where that something had 5 digits.
That was obviously completely wrong because (1) there is no possible way it could have data that would justify giving an answer with 5 digits after the decimal point, and (2) the maximum possible score was 800 and scores were a multiple of 10, so for 790 to have been 17th percentile would mean that 83% of people who took the test scored a perfect 800.
I told it that this was clearly absurd.
It responded that I was completely right and said it was going to try again. On the retry it gave a reasonable answer that I knew from what I remembered was in the right ballpark and not given to ridiculous accuracy.
It also sometimes completely botches it when information is available. For example a while back someone cited Musk only scoring 730 on the math SAT as evidence that there is something from with the test.
I looked up Musk's age to figure out about when he would have taken the SAT then asked Perplexity what percentile a 760 would have been then. It gave me an answer that as far as I can tell was right (~90th).
I then wondered what my percentile was, so asked it what percentile 790 would have been when I took it. It told me it would have been 17.something, where that something had 5 digits.
That was obviously completely wrong because (1) there is no possible way it could have data that would justify giving an answer with 5 digits after the decimal point, and (2) the maximum possible score was 800 and scores were a multiple of 10, so for 790 to have been 17th percentile would mean that 83% of people who took the test scored a perfect 800.
I told it that this was clearly absurd.
It responded that I was completely right and said it was going to try again. On the retry it gave a reasonable answer that I knew from what I remembered was in the right ballpark and not given to ridiculous accuracy.
Couldn't agree more with this. A stock I hold suddenly started trending sharply upwards earlier in the year and when I asked Perplexity to research why it came back with a very detailed and well-cited explanation. It's far more efficient at distilling stuff down into a useful format than if I were to Google it myself
The SEO-optimized blog spam is the worst.
Each page has paragraphs and paragraphs of pure filler. Let the AI crawlers read them so I don’t have to.
Each page has paragraphs and paragraphs of pure filler. Let the AI crawlers read them so I don’t have to.
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
I completely agree. I also love the transparency that it provides as to where it is getting the reasoning for making a specific claim.
I can also ask it to just reference research papers and it will find relevant data relating to my query from peer reviewed sources.
I can also ask it to just reference research papers and it will find relevant data relating to my query from peer reviewed sources.
A year ago it was useful. Now you are reminding me to cancel my subscription because it rarely is better that ChatGPT or Claude
Ever since deep thinking came out
Ever since deep thinking came out
Which web search do you prefer over perplexity?
https://search.brave.com
Both Kagi and Perplexity are customers of Brave, btw. See https://brave.com/api or just ask if you have questions. Will answer what I can for anyone curious.
Both Kagi and Perplexity are customers of Brave, btw. See https://brave.com/api or just ask if you have questions. Will answer what I can for anyone curious.
self-hosted SearXNG [1] pointed at the lot of them. All the results, none of the tracking and some insight in which subjects are suppressed by which search engine.
[1] https://docs.searxng.org/
[1] https://docs.searxng.org/
Google
Not me — Perplexity is so much better than Google. This troll bid made me laugh
i really enjoy perplexity. i recommend taking advantage of one of the o2 resale deals out there so that its like $7/yr instead of $240 and let the VCs eat the rest. I don’t know of any better ai access deals out there. It’s absurd and unsustainable.
These are consumer products that are basically commodities to all but the largest power users. If you loved their product than this approach should make you ecstatic as its the only way they'll be able to survive as an independent.
OpenAi literally retired all their models to the anger of the likes of people like you because they know this is all basically a race for the most familiar consumer assistant on a monthly subscription.
OpenAi literally retired all their models to the anger of the likes of people like you because they know this is all basically a race for the most familiar consumer assistant on a monthly subscription.
My reason is much more petty, but their refusal to allow me to sign-in with either a password+2fa or passkey and instead force me to open my email for a magic link has pushed me away.
Don't make using your product annoying.
Don't make using your product annoying.
Magic links are an order of magnitude safer than passwords, and the majority of regular users will never set up 2FA, so this raises the base safety for all
Are they truly marketing stunts? I mean I guess they could just fork Chromium instead.
Perplexity made a similar longshot offer for TikTok at the peak of that controversy, so yes it's a stunt: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/18/perplexity-ai-makes-a-bid-to...
They've already forked Chromium. https://www.perplexity.ai/comet
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.
Perplexity already has a browser. At this point, this is complete desperation from them for attention.
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.
A social media ad company would be the least favourable. At least Google's central ad business is based off of search queries the user gives to them willingly for value.
I think google amasses far more information via website analytics, Gmail and SSO (Log in with Google) than "willingly"-input search queries.
This was the case, like, 20 years ago. Google is effectively an ad company that makes tech — including a browser — to gather more data from users and sell ads.
They have no lack of attempts to change their central business into a social media ad company, tough. They just failed.
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.
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...
https://blog.cloudflare.com/perplexity-is-using-stealth-unde...
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).
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).
> 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).
I am not sure if a single fee works. Browsers are too important and hard to maintain. What if people had paid single fee for Chrome 15 years ago for non-profit?
I am not sure if a single fee works. Browsers are too important and hard to maintain. What if people had paid single fee for Chrome 15 years ago for non-profit?
You could charge for upgrades.
I don't think that it works with browsers. Otherwise web standards will not progress very well, since everyone tries to support the first Chrome version for their website. We create even more friction than having different browsers already has.
My take is the reverse. It would slow down development of web standard, which is a good thing, and allow competitors to develop and catch up.
We want more browser engines, and slowing down development, e.g. to yearly, every two, or every three year for major releases would go a long way to ensure that.
We want more browser engines, and slowing down development, e.g. to yearly, every two, or every three year for major releases would go a long way to ensure that.
> We want more browser engines, and slowing down development, e.g. to yearly, every two, or every three year for major releases would go a long way to ensure that.
Maybe you forget why we want more browser engines? It is not that we want the same standards rewritten differently. We want more competition, so that we get new ideas and alternatives. Maybe others don't have to catch up, since some standards or practices are currently dictated by Google and not seen as good in general.
Maybe you forget why we want more browser engines? It is not that we want the same standards rewritten differently. We want more competition, so that we get new ideas and alternatives. Maybe others don't have to catch up, since some standards or practices are currently dictated by Google and not seen as good in general.
A $14B to $18B dollar company offering an all stock deal worth about 2x as much as its market cap.
This isn't a serious offer, its a publicity stunt. Google would effectively own the entire company short of some mind blowing multiple expansion here.
Watch for Perplexity to be raising money in the next 6 months. But given this stunt it looks like they think their growth is over and they've peaked as a company.
This isn't a serious offer, its a publicity stunt. Google would effectively own the entire company short of some mind blowing multiple expansion here.
Watch for Perplexity to be raising money in the next 6 months. But given this stunt it looks like they think their growth is over and they've peaked as a company.
"The AI says I should raise $34.5 billion from investors and make a bid for Google's browser."
I wonder if they've thought about what it'll cost to keep Chrome dominant as a platform including the effort that goes into securing it on an ongoing basis!
I wonder if they've thought about what it'll cost to keep Chrome dominant as a platform including the effort that goes into securing it on an ongoing basis!
I was thinking the same thing. If they have to raise money to buy Chrome, can they afford the development teams?
I have a sense this is one of those issues that people don't know how they should feel, but some narrative of how we as enlightened technologists should feel will form.
On one hand, people don't like Google owning chrome as they have a huge influence on open web and they're essentially an ad company
On the other hand, if in the hands of an AI company, this could mean using your data for models, VC incentives, less open in general. Perplexity doesn't have a money printing machine to forever subsidize a browser.
It'll be interesting which narrative wins out.
On one hand, people don't like Google owning chrome as they have a huge influence on open web and they're essentially an ad company
On the other hand, if in the hands of an AI company, this could mean using your data for models, VC incentives, less open in general. Perplexity doesn't have a money printing machine to forever subsidize a browser.
It'll be interesting which narrative wins out.
I still don't understand how forcing Google to sell Chrome achieves any of the regulator's goals. The only piece that matters is how Google controls both ends of the advertising market. I wouldn't be surprised if Google is ushering this penalty because its a public slap on the wrist that they can go home laughing about.
Why buy Chrome anyway? Put that $34.5 billion into a team that forks and develops Chromium. Ban Google from developing browsers as well as paying for search preference in other browsers.
Why buy Chrome anyway? Put that $34.5 billion into a team that forks and develops Chromium. Ban Google from developing browsers as well as paying for search preference in other browsers.
Perplexity are trying to find their place so they try whatever they can. Web search, shopping search, finance search, browser, deep research, anything. They were first to do a good job on web search but ChatGPT and Claude caught up and now Perplexity, who doesn't have their own family of models like the other two, is shooting in the dark.
Perhaps they should invest in tech support instead. I just spent a few days talking to a AI bot about an invoice issue I had.
Anyone here use perplexity? I’ve tried numerous times, but once you get over the flashy UI, it feels like a lot of fluff.
I use it for very quick searches much like I would have used Google. Basically gives me the first page of Google results minus sponsored links plus a few-paragraph wiki for whatever.
I have Pro Claude plan, so I use that for deeper research. Not sure there's much difference now that Claude has web search. Perp is slightly more terse and also doesn't expend my tokens for Claude code
I have Pro Claude plan, so I use that for deeper research. Not sure there's much difference now that Claude has web search. Perp is slightly more terse and also doesn't expend my tokens for Claude code
I am a pretty regular user - I’ve found it to be helpful, and a better way of searching the web for answers.
But I also haven’t used Google in years (I switched to other search engines) so their AI might be just as good.
Perplexity also has overlap with ChatGPT’s web search, but Perplexity is faster for me.
But I also haven’t used Google in years (I switched to other search engines) so their AI might be just as good.
Perplexity also has overlap with ChatGPT’s web search, but Perplexity is faster for me.
I find myself using it more and more as time goes on. I got one of those year long deals so I'm not really too invested in the cost but the overall experience is not bad.
You get several models you can use (albeit they're not quite as powerful as their branded versions directly). you can setup projects and most other features you come to expect.
They do a good job with search though which is kind of their core value prop. They summarize well, cite sources, and have largely been pretty accurate with their findings. Being able to start a research task and provide more info and context while it is running is nice too for that "oh, I forgot about this!" moment.
With the pro sub you also get $5 in api credits a month so there's that.
You get several models you can use (albeit they're not quite as powerful as their branded versions directly). you can setup projects and most other features you come to expect.
They do a good job with search though which is kind of their core value prop. They summarize well, cite sources, and have largely been pretty accurate with their findings. Being able to start a research task and provide more info and context while it is running is nice too for that "oh, I forgot about this!" moment.
With the pro sub you also get $5 in api credits a month so there's that.
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.
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.
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I am a fan. Because it is search based, I see a lot less hallucination, and it always provides links so you can click the link to verify the information.
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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?
At an estimated 3.45 billion Chrome users across virtually all platforms, that places the value of a Chrome user at $10.
Anyone can fork a browser (and many unqualified or underfunded teams do), but acquiring control of the primary surface for Internet access of nearly half the planet? $34.5B seems pretty cheap.
Anyone can fork a browser (and many unqualified or underfunded teams do), but acquiring control of the primary surface for Internet access of nearly half the planet? $34.5B seems pretty cheap.
If they buy Chrome, they can change the default search on a web browser used by half the planet.
But will it be legal?
Chrome has a slightly higher installed base than comet.
The same reason Elon bought twitter for $40B or whatever. The tech isn't worth that - the audience is(or, might be)
The users and data is what everyone wants. Which is scary because Google at least doesn't sell data (they just match contextual ads to users), whereas any company that purchases Chrome no doubt will.
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.
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.
This is not a serious offer. Even if it was, is a low-ball one for a browser like Chrome. (Why did they choose that figure given they know they don't have the money).
Also they do not have anywhere close to having the money or stock value to buy it. So this is just for attention grabbing for the headlines.
Move along now, nothing to see here.
Also they do not have anywhere close to having the money or stock value to buy it. So this is just for attention grabbing for the headlines.
Move along now, nothing to see here.
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?
It’s simple, they can’t. This is a publicity stunt
If they think it's worth that much, ask yourself about how they plan to profit from it.
Imagine a browser (or any tech) that delivers seamless and undisclosed advertising and narrative through conversational interface. Why wouldn't that be an endgame of LLMs?
Imagine a browser (or any tech) that delivers seamless and undisclosed advertising and narrative through conversational interface. Why wouldn't that be an endgame of LLMs?
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Very disappointing that legitimate news organizations are giving this joke story coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/technology/perplexity-goo...
Maybe Gamestop, PeTA, or Roblox should make an offer next.
Maybe Gamestop, PeTA, or Roblox should make an offer next.
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in case you missed it, Perplexity is now in bed with Trump
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/trump-ai-truth-search-per...
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/trump-ai-truth-search-per...
The link seems to suggest they provide services to Trump but hilariously not to his benefit at all.
Yet another cheap PR stunt.
Why would they pay so much money for Chrome? They could just fork chromium for free? 34B is just for web address?
For the users, via the Chrome brand, and via being pre-installed on Chromebooks and Android. By far most users run Chrome, not Chromium forks, and this would continue after a competent acquisition.
Whoever owns Chrome decides exactly what software most users run for web browsing, decides future web standards in practice, decides which kinds of extensions most users can use, decides the limits and carve-outs of adblockers, codecs and web features, has all the telemetry, and in future decides what AI-driven "presentational" modifications to web pages will be done, and what semantic scraping and uploading will happen automatically in the browser.
Whoever owns Chrome decides exactly what software most users run for web browsing, decides future web standards in practice, decides which kinds of extensions most users can use, decides the limits and carve-outs of adblockers, codecs and web features, has all the telemetry, and in future decides what AI-driven "presentational" modifications to web pages will be done, and what semantic scraping and uploading will happen automatically in the browser.
If Google loses Chrome though, it will no longer be pre-installed on Chromebooks and Android. They will just fork Chromium, call it something else, and pre-install that. Sure they might lose some Windows users who miss the news reports and don't install the replacement and keep using Chrome, until their bookmark sync stops working since that relies on proprietary Google account integration.
> If Google loses Chrome though, it will no longer be pre-installed on Chromebooks and Android
That would depend on the contract.
For $34.5B, I would expect the contract to say Google agrees to continue pre-installing Chrome on Chromebooks and Android for many years, with financial penalties if they don't.
That would depend on the contract.
For $34.5B, I would expect the contract to say Google agrees to continue pre-installing Chrome on Chromebooks and Android for many years, with financial penalties if they don't.
>We are observing stealth crawling behavior from Perplexity, an AI-powered answer engine. Although Perplexity initially crawls from their declared user agent, when they are presented with a network block, they appear to obscure their crawling identity in an attempt to circumvent the website’s preferences. We see continued evidence that Perplexity is repeatedly modifying their user agent and changing their source ASNs to hide their crawling activity, as well as ignoring — or sometimes failing to even fetch — robots.txt files.
Yeah, I'm sure that Perplexity would only have noble ideas in mind if the acquire a piece of software that is installed on >60% of the web-browsing population and automatically updates in the background.
Yeah, I'm sure that Perplexity would only have noble ideas in mind if the acquire a piece of software that is installed on >60% of the web-browsing population and automatically updates in the background.
I'm guessing the installed user base make up the bulk of the value.
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After selling Chrome to Perplexity, Google could just announce the end of life for Google Chrome, without an upgrade path. Then it's up to Perplexity to get these users to install Perplexity Chrome.
I'm sure part of the sale terms would be gracefully handing over control
A lot of people think The Internet == Chrome == Google