In thinking about the three current AI-native web browsers, Fanny on Medium sees what lessons product designers can take from their different approaches.
On Perplexity Comet:
Design Insight: Comet succeeds by making AI feel like a natural extension of browsing, not an interruption. The sidecar model is brilliant because it respects the user’s primary task (reading, researching, shopping) while offering help exactly when context is fresh. But there’s a trade-off — Comet’s background assistant, which can handle multiple tasks simultaneously while you work, requires extensive permissions and introduces real security concerns.
On ChatGPT Atlas:
Design Insight: Atlas is making a larger philosophical statement — that the future of computing isn’t about better search, it’s about conversation as an interface. The key product decision here is making ChatGPT’s memory and context awareness central. Atlas remembers what sites you’ve visited, what you were working on, and uses that history to personalize responses. Ask “What was that doc I had my presentation plan in?” and it finds it.
On The Browser Company Dia:
Design Insight: Dia is asking the most interesting question — what happens when AI isn’t a sidebar or a search replacement, but a fundamental rethinking of input methods? The insertion cursor, the mouse, the address bar — these are the primitives of computing. Dia is making them intelligent.
She concludes that they “can’t all be right. But they’re probably all pointing at pieces of what comes next.”
I do think it’s a combo and Atlas is likely headed in the right direction. For AI to be truly assistive, it has to have relevant context. Since a lot of our lives are increasingly on the internet via web apps—and nearly everything is a web app these days—ChatGPT’s profile of you will have the most context, including your chats with the chatbot.
I began using Perplexity because I appreciated its accuracy compared with ChatGPT; this was pre-web search. But even with web search built into ChatGPT 5, I still find Perplexity’s (and therefore Comet’s) approach to be more trustworthy.
My conclusion stands though: I’m still waiting on the Arc-Dia-Comet browser smoothie.
