The Browser Company’s Chromium-based Arc browser is “not perfect and takes some getting used to,” the Verge writes. “Boot full of great new ideas about how we interact with the internet – and it’s true about most of them.”
Arc wants to be the Internet’s operating system. As such, it created a series of tools that make it easier to manage apps and content, made icons and bookmarks more like app launchers, and created several cross-platform apps. The app is more thoughtful and more sophisticated than your average browser, with a row of identical-y icons across the top of the screen. Another way to think about it is that Arc treats the web the way TikTok treats video: not as a fixed thing for you to consume, but as an endlessly re-mixable set of components to take apart, play with, and use to create something. own Want something to look better or have an idea of what to do with it? Go for it.
Here it is a fun moment in the web browser industry. After more than a decade of overall Chrome dominance, users are looking elsewhere for more features, more privacy, and a better UI. Vivaldi you have some really smart features; SigmaOS bet on browsers as well as operating systems; Brave you have smart ideas about privacy; even Edge and Firefox are improving rapidly. But Arc is their biggest swing yet: an attempt not just to improve the browser, but to completely reinvent it….
Currently, Arc is only available for Mac, but the company said that It runs on Windows and mobile versions, both coming next year. It’s still in beta on the waiting list and is a very beta app with some key features missing, other features still in limbo, and a few deeply annoying bugs. But Ark’s big ideas are right. I don’t know if The Browser Company is ready to take on the giants and win the next generation of the browser wars, but I’m sure the future of browsers looks a lot like Arc….
In a way, Arc looks more like ChromeOS than Chrome. It tries to extend the browser to be the only app you need, because who really needs more than a browser in a world where all your apps are web apps and all your files are URLs?
The article describes Arc as a powerful user tool with a vertical sidebar that integrates bookmarks, icons, and apps. (And sets of these can probably be combined into different “spaces”.) These are enhanced with built-in media controls for Twitch/Spotify/Google Meet (also), as well as a large set of keyboard shortcuts (including tab search). in picture-in-picture mode).
BR. Arc even has a shareable, collaborative whiteboard app called Mobirzt. It also offers powerful features such as the ability to rewrite how your browser displays any site’s CSS. (“I have one that removes Trending sidebars from Twitter, and another that cleans up my Gmail page.”)
