Arc Browser Introduces 'Boost' So Users Can Redesign Websites They Visit To Their Liking

The Arc browser is unique from the very beginning, because it doesn't want to compete with other browsers in the market.

Arc doesn't want to go against Google Chrome, the most popular web browser, or Mozilla Firefox, or others that are far older and more established. After all, competing with them means that it's constrained to what its rivals do, and is forced to do what they do, but better.

Instead, The Browser Company, the company that created the Arc browser, wants the browser to be the internet's computer, saving the web from cluttered tabs and confusion.

This time, it goes further by literally allowing users to redesign the web to whatever their hearts desire.

While only on the frontend-part, the feature it calls 'Boost' allows users to change the way any website looks.

Basically, Boosts has two features.

The first feature allows users to hide any given part of a web page.

For example, Boosts’ 'Zap' feature can be used to remove all signs of Shorts from the YouTube homepage and to remove the 'trending' sidebar on Twitter. Users can also use it to remove sponsored listings on websites, like Amazon, and get rid of both of LinkedIn's sidebars.

The second feature, is essentially an editor, where users can control everything from the color to the layout of every website they visit

For example, users can change the font of a web page, force a dark mode, make images bigger, and more.

There is no limit to what users can do, in terms of changing the looks and feel of a website.

This is because Boost allows users to fiddle with a website's CSS and JavaScript.

The philosophical idea about Boost is to give users the control they need to make the internet, their internet.

On its website post, Arc said that Boosts are "a new way to edit and remix your internet."

According to Darin Fisher, a longtime web developer who is the software engineer at The Browser Company:

It's worth noting that Boost is actually a new version of an old idea.

There are numerous tools that allow people to customize the web into their liking, with some are better than the other. The thing is, they typically required users to have at least basic coding knowledge.

While Boost is pretty much the same, Boost has a way for users to customize their internet experience with a user interface, like a color wheel, where they can can click any color to apply to any web element they want.

What's more, The Browser Company has enticed the creation of community, where Arc users can submit their Boost setup, and let others download it.

Calling it the 'Boost Gallery', users can search for and discover those shareable customizations for various websites.

There, users can find other people’s tweaks to the web.

It's also worth noting that there is one big limitation to this, and that is JavaScript in Boost, which cannot be shared.

This makes sense, because JavaScript is often the tool to build malicious codes, and that Arc doesn't want users to have their online privacy and security compromised.

The Browser Company also ensures that users' shared Boosts won't break or cause any problems when installed, or hide anything. things don't break.

The company knows that some users will eventually, and inevitably create Boosts that cause problems, and that those users might even forget they made a Boost and just blame the website itself.