An underdog sometimes bites hard. And The Browser Company is certainly that.
Founded by Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal, the company takes a different route because the bar for the competition is just too high for a new company. According to Miller, the CEO of the company, building yet another web browser is pointless, and a huge waste of time.
With big and popular browsers having their own fans, there are little reasons for them to switch to other popular browsers, let alone a smaller browser from a much less established brand.
So instead of competing in the market where pretty much every web browser user use either Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Apple Safari, the company created Arc, a freeware web browser that wants to be "the internet computer."
The goal is integrate web browsing with built-in applications and features.
This time, the browser starts making an official presence on Microsoft Windows operating system, two months after Miller teased it in an X post.
It starts today.
The first Arc on Windows beta invites are out - and yours is coming soon.
isarconwindowsyet [dot] com pic.twitter.com/3n7ucU11Rh— The Browser Company (@browsercompany) December 11, 2023
The Browser Company said that it is "onboarding hundreds of beta testers to Arc" over the next several weeks.
Starting in 2024, the number of people who will be given a chance to check out Arc will expand to thousands of people who are on the beta waitlist every week.
The Browser Company has been trying out some new ideas for web browsers for the iOS and Mac versions, They include the use of built-in apps like a notepad and more.
The Arc browser also supports what its developers call "boosts", which is supposed to let users customize the look of certain web sites.
Launched in beta, the Arc Browser on Windows integrates the browser's URL address bar on the left, and allow tabs to be organized into "spaces" for speedy access.
According to The Browser Company, the Arc browser for Windows was built using Apple's Swift programming language.
Users have been demanding a Windows version for Arc, especially after the company made the Mac client available to everyone after being in invite-only mode since 2022.
Those involved in the project, include product engineering lead Alexandra Medway, former Vice President of Google Chrome Darin Fischer, and former Facebook engineer and Swift on Windows expert Saleem Abdulrasool.
Along with the development, the company also plans to open-source its code.
That is not all, because as a tech company, The Browser Company also has its eyes on the generative AI hype.
This is why it's introducing 'Arc Max'.
Whereas most web browser companies are going for the typical AI sidebars, designed to empower web searches and improve user interactions.
Arc takes a different approach.
Instead of having an AI to help users with their quests when browsing the web, Arc Max is more like Google Assistant, or Microsoft Copilot, which aims to improve the experience inside the app itself.
To do this, Arc Max is actually a collection of five AI-powered features, powered by a combination of OpenAI's GPT-3.5-powered ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. Those features are:
- Ask ChatGPT: - Users ask question to an integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT directly from the Arc Command Line.
- Tidy Tab Title: A feature that uses AI to rename tabs and make them easier to locate.
- Tidy Downloads: Similar to the above, the AI can be used to rename downloaded files to an actual descriptive title.
- Five-Second Previews: Users can hover over any link and fetch a brief summary and preview of the link in question.
- Ask On Page: Users can locate a word or phrase on a website, and if users cannot find what they're looking for, the AI can seek answers for them.
2023 has been a busy year for The Browser Company, indeed.