Breaking the Search Monopoly: How Perplexity’s Comet and Relentless Visionaries Are Reshaping the Internet

From Remote Work Epiphany to AI Startup

In 2020, when COVID-19 upended our lives and remote work became the norm, I found myself managing a team from my home office. After 20 years in management, I knew what good performance management should feel like—simple, human-centered, and effective. Yet the existing solutions were clunky, overpriced and overloaded with features nobody used ( They still are today). This frustration sparked an idea during those early lockdown days. I began sketching out a vision for a better solution: a performance management platform with no bloat and no needless complexity, something that would actually help managers and employees stay aligned in this new remote world.

I poured my thoughts into notes about what this ideal tool—eventually to be called Evalflow—should do. I imagined real-time feedback loops, quick check-ins, goal tracking, and an interface so intuitive you wouldn’t need a manual. It remained an idea on paper for a while. But then something happened that turned a notebook vision into a real product.

Building Evalflow: When AI Met Determination

Late 2022 brought the AI revolution to everyone’s fingertips. Tools like OpenAI’s GPT models were suddenly accessible, and they empowered even non-developers to create software. I felt a surge of excitement (and frankly, power). With newfound AI assistance and no-code platforms, I jumped into building Evalflow myself. What might have taken a full team months or years to develop, I was able to prototype in weeks. By mid-2023, I had even taught myself to write code, using AI pair-programming tools to accelerate the learning curve. The technology was advancing so fast that each month I could add features that seemed impossible the month before.

Fast forward to 2024: after countless late nights and iterative improvements, I landed my first paying customer for Evalflow. In two years, this idea had grown from scribbles in a notebook to a live SaaS product with real companies relying on it. Evalflow now delivers things like instant AI-generated performance evaluations, one-click 360° feedback, OKR tracking, and more – all in minutes, not the months traditional HR systems demand. It’s been a whirlwind.

And whether Evalflow reaches the summit of success or eventually winds down, the journey has been priceless for me. I’ve learned more by building this startup than I ever could have in a classroom. I went from a manager with ideas to a founder who can actually bring those ideas to life. In the process I picked up skills in coding, database design (hello Postgres!), setting up secure authentication (SSO, 2FA), and architecting complex features. I’ve shipped updates weekly, sometimes daily, and learned how to truly listen to user feedback. There’s no MBA course on how to debug a production app at 2 AM, or how to integrate an AI model into a feedback workflow – but I lived it. Even if Evalflow doesn’t become a unicorn, it has already made me a far better technologist and leader. I’ve even brought these new skills back into my day job, implementing AI-powered solutions for my employer that cut costs, streamlines process, increase efficiency and productivity ten folds, and accomplish things in days and weeks unimaginable without AI. In short, building Evalflow taught me how to turn innovation from a buzzword into real-world impact.

But this article isn’t just about my startup. It’s about a bigger picture – a revolution in how we use the internet and who gets to shape its future. My personal journey is just one example of a broader truth: when bold ideas meet relentless execution, entire industries can change. And nothing is more ripe for change right now than the thing we all use every day – online search.

The Search Monopoly (And Why It’s Failing Us)

Let’s face it: search is broken. For over two decades, one company – Google – has dominated how we find information online. Google’s rise in the early 2000s was thanks to a brilliant algorithm (PageRank) that used backlinks to rank pages. But here we are in 2025, and that core approach hasn’t fundamentally changed. What has changed is Google’s search results page – it’s now a cluttered battlefield of paid ads, SEO-optimized content farms, and answer boxes that sometimes raise more questions than answers. We’ve all had the experience of Googling a simple question, only to be met with a wall of ads and top results that feel gamed or irrelevant. Genuine, useful answers are often buried beneath sites that merely mastered the art of clickbait and keyword stuffing.

This is more than just a mild annoyance. Google’s dominance has shaped the entire economy of the web. Businesses large and small have spent billions on advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) just to capture a fraction of our attention. Quality content doesn’t guarantee visibility; the size of your marketing budget or the cleverness of your SEO strategy often does. In a very real sense, the information we consume daily is skewed by who can pay or maneuver their way to the top of the rankings. Valuable voices – small businesses with great products, niche bloggers with deep expertise, everyday people with useful insights – get drowned out if they can’t play the Google game. The search monopoly has meant gatekeeping of knowledge and opportunity.

For a long time, it seemed like this was just the way things are. “Don’t fight the search algorithm, just learn to live with it,” we thought. But deep down, a lot of us felt a growing frustration. Why should one company’s 20-year-old technology dictate how we access the world’s knowledge? Why can’t searching the web be as straightforward as asking a question to a smart friend? Where’s the innovation that puts the user’s needs first instead of advertiser interests?

Well, that moment may have finally arrived.

Enter Perplexity’s Comet: The AI Browser to Challenge Google

A few weeks ago, Perplexity AI — a startup co-founded by Aravind Srinivas (a former OpenAI and Google researcher) — announced an ambitious new product called Comet. Comet is not just another Chrome or Firefox; it’s an AI-powered web browser designed from the ground up to be your intelligent companion on the internet. When I read Aravind’s announcement of Comet, I had to do a double-take — this was the very kind of tool I’d been dreaming about. In fact, I had even toyed with building a similar “AI browser” idea myself, but I lacked the resources to go all the way. Now here it was, finally real: a browser that can answer your questions, summarize information, and even perform tasks for you, all without the usual search hassles.

Think of Comet as a browser with a built-in brain. Instead of the old routine of opening a search engine, typing keywords, and wading through a swamp of blue links and ads, Comet lets you ask questions in natural language anywhere, anytime. It uses AI (large language models and other techniques) to understand your query and fetch information or perform an action. The result? You get answers, not just links. It’s like having a research assistant who can instantly read and synthesize the entire web for you, then hand you exactly what you need.

Why is this a potential game-changer? Because Comet’s approach threatens to flip the script on how online search works. Rather than ranking results based on popularity or ad bids, an AI-driven system can evaluate content on the fly, looking for actual relevance and accuracy. In theory, the best answer to a question could come from a small indie blog or a startup’s documentation page — sources that Google’s page one might never show you. By using AI as an intermediary between us and the vast information online, Comet can surface useful insights from anywhere, not just the usual suspects that have dominated search results.

This has huge implications. It levels the playing field for those of us who aren’t backed by massive SEO budgets. If you run a niche business with a fantastic product, Comet might highlight your offering to users genuinely seeking it, even if you haven’t spent a dime on Google Ads. If you’re a content creator with quality answers to very specific questions, Comet can find you and credit you, rather than leaving your work buried. In short, Comet is aiming to democratize access and discovery on the web — something search was always supposed to do but lost sight of as it became an advertising juggernaut.

Now, it’s important to note that Comet is in early access. As of today, it’s available to Perplexity’s premium Perplexity Max subscribers, and others can join a waitlist for invites. It’s not an overnight “Google killer,” and the team at Perplexity has a long road ahead. But the significance is this: for the first time in recent memory, we have a serious new idea in the web browsing and search space. Comet combines a traditional browser with an AI assistant that can handle complex tasks. Want to compare prices for the same product across different sites and have the fastest shipping option highlighted? Just ask Comet. Need to summarize a 10-page research article you’re reading in a separate tab? Comet can do that too. It’s not just about search queries; it’s about transforming how we interact with the web at a fundamental level.

Channeling Ex Machina: Obsessive Visionaries Drive Progress

There’s a scene in the sci-fi film Ex Machina that has stuck with me and feels uncannily relevant now. In the movie, a character named Nathan Bateman – the fictional CEO of the world’s biggest search engine, Blue Book (their version of Google) – has all the money and success one could imagine. But instead of basking in luxury, Nathan chooses to seclude himself in a remote Alaskan research facility for years, obsessively working on a higher calling: creating true artificial intelligence. His dedication is so intense that to an outsider it looks like madness. Why would someone so rich and powerful essentially disappear from the world to work in solitude? The answer: passion and vision. Nathan bet everything – his time, his life, his sanity – on achieving a revolutionary breakthrough, and (spoiler alert) he succeeds in building the world’s first sentient AI.

Now, Nathan Bateman is a fictional character (and to be fair, not exactly a role model for ethics), but the essence of his journey resonates. It’s a dramatized example of what real innovation often requires. The richest man in that story wasn’t interested in resting on his laurels; he felt compelled to build something that could change the world. He knew that true breakthroughs demand unwavering focus and a willingness to tune out the naysayers and distractions. There’s a thin line between genius and insanity, and people on a mission often seem crazy to those who don’t share their vision.

When I look at Aravind Srinivas and the team at Perplexity, I see echoes of that Nathan Bateman kind of drive (minus the villainous overtones, of course!). Here’s a founder who left comfortable roles at places like OpenAI and Google because he was convinced search could be done better. Instead of accepting the status quo or chasing the next trendy startup idea, Aravind and his co-founders locked onto a problem that hadn’t been solved in 20 years: How do we free the world’s knowledge from the grip of gatekeepers and make it truly useful? In 2022 they launched Perplexity as an AI answer engine, and they’ve been steadily improving it with almost fanatical consistency. It’s not hard to imagine the late nights and relentless iterations happening behind the scenes — a small team with a big mission, tuning out the noise of Silicon Valley hype cycles and just building, day after day.

This kind of obsessive, heads-down innovation is the unsexy secret behind most “overnight” successes. It’s something I came to appreciate in my own journey with Evalflow: you win by showing up every day, even when progress is slow or when others don’t yet see the value in what you’re doing. Consistency is a superpower. The Perplexity team’s persistence reminds me that great tech products are often less about one flash of genius and more about hundreds of small improvements, compounding over time, guided by a clear vision.

No Hype, Real Value: The Philosophy We Share

Another lesson I’ve learned in both building a startup and observing the tech industry: not every big company is truly innovating. In an age of flashy announcements and billion-dollar valuations, it’s easy to lose sight of actual value. We’ve seen tech giants pour resources into trend-of-the-month projects that never really solve a tangible problem or deliver on their grand promises. How many times have we heard buzzwords like “metaverse” or witnessed companies pivot to whatever seems hot, only for those initiatives to quietly fizzle out?

That’s why something like Comet is so refreshing. The team behind it isn’t chasing hype; they’re addressing a real, persistent pain point that almost everyone can relate to. The value proposition is straightforward: make the internet more useful for you and me, right now. Cut out the noise, the ads, the clickbait. Give us tools that act in our interest, not in the interest of ad sellers. It’s the same ethos that drove me to make Evalflow simple and effective – strip away the nonsense and focus on what helps people in a practical way.

It’s interesting, too, how these philosophies align. Evalflow and Comet might tackle different problems (HR tech vs. web browsing), but both share a core principle: empower the user with intelligence and simplicity, rather than overwhelm them with complexity and ulterior motives. In my case, that means helping managers and employees get on the same page without a million dropdowns and steps. In Perplexity’s case, it means helping any curious mind get answers and accomplish tasks online without wrestling with an outmoded search system.

10X Your Efficiency and Break Free from the Chains of Ads

Using Comet isn’t just about improved search—it’s about a dramatic upgrade in your efficiency and productivity. Imagine a workflow without interruptions from ads, sponsored links, or manipulated rankings designed to guide you into sales funnels. Instead of wasting time sorting through irrelevant results or clicking past marketing traps, Comet lets you instantly zero in on the exact information or task you need. It’s a productivity multiplier that frees your attention, sharpens your focus, and helps you get meaningful work done faster.

With Comet, your browsing experience transforms from being passively led through paths dictated by Google’s highest bidders to an active exploration powered by intelligent AI guidance. Say goodbye to the chains of paid influence and distraction, and say hello to a browsing experience that values your time above advertisers’ dollars.

This isn’t just incremental progress—it’s the potential to 10X your productivity, reclaiming countless hours previously lost navigating irrelevant content, ads, and paid placements. Comet empowers you to take back control, making each moment spent online truly count.

Shaping the Future: A Call to Action

Now, you might be thinking: This all sounds great, but Google is huge and entrenched. Can a small company like Perplexity with its Comet browser really make a dent? The honest answer is, I don’t know for sure. But I believe it can, especially if people like us – the everyday users, the entrepreneurs, the knowledge-seekers – decide we’re ready for a change.

Here’s why I’m optimistic: Every monopoly in tech seems unbeatable until suddenly it’s not. IBM once thought the PC market was all theirs. MySpace was sure no one could challenge them in social networking. Nokia dominated mobile phones and laughed at the idea of touchscreen devices. We know how those stories ended. Google’s dominance in search has lasted longer than most, because let’s admit it, they’ve done a lot right over the years. But times change. Technologies change. User expectations change. We’re at a point now where artificial intelligence can fundamentally redefine how we interact with information – and Google’s model, brilliant as it was in 2005, is looking increasingly out of step with what’s possible in 2025.

If we as users continue to default to Google out of habit, the status quo will drag on. But if we collectively show that we’re willing to try something new – to even hope for something better – that alone sends a powerful message. Competition is what forces complacent giants to improve. And supporting a visionary underdog can create that competition.

So, here’s my ask: give Perplexity’s Comet a try. Sign up for the waitlist (it’s invite-only at the moment, but they’re rolling out access continually). When you get access, use it. Ask it tough questions. Use it for a week and see how it changes your flow. And if you find value in it, spread the word. The more of us that use tools like Comet, the smarter and better they’ll get (AI feeds on data and feedback, after all). More importantly, you’ll be casting a vote for an internet that isn’t dominated by a single gatekeeper.

This isn’t just about one browser or one company. It’s about nudging the entire tech ecosystem toward a healthier, more open, more innovative direction. Imagine a world where information is truly democratized – where the best content rises because it’s actually helpful, not because someone spent millions to game the system. Imagine an economy where a great product from a tiny startup can find its audience without begging Google for ad placement. That’s the world Comet’s vision points to.

As for me, I’ll continue building, learning, and sharing along the way. Evalflow was my first big leap into this new AI-powered era, but it won’t be my last. Whether it’s through that product or something else down the line, I’m committed to the same ideals I see in Comet: innovation that actually helps people, consistency over hype, and empowering the little guy. The journey of creation has been its own reward for me – and I believe supporting others with bold visions can be just as rewarding.

We stand at an inflection point. Search is just one part of it. AI is handing us tools that can rewrite how everything works, from how we manage teams (as I learned) to how we navigate the web. The future belongs to the curious, to the passionate, and to those who show up. In Ex Machina, Nathan Bateman’s ultimate flaw was his hubris and isolation, but his strength was his unwavering dedication to a goal. We can all borrow that strength – minus the toxic ego – and dedicate ourselves to building and supporting the things that matter.

Perplexity’s Comet might just be the crack in the dam that grows into a flood of positive change. I, for one, am betting on the visionaries crazy enough to try. Will you join me?

*(P.S. If you do get on Comet, I’d love to hear about your experience. Let’s share notes on how it changes our internet habits! And if you’re working on your own bold project, keep at it – you never know how your consistency and passion might pay off.)