03 // The death of the window to the world
03 // The death of the
window to the world
03 // The death of the
window to the world
April 19, 2022. A special day that most of us probably don’t know, but it holds so much significance.
On this day, Arc Browser was released.
Arc was different from Chrome in all the ways that Chrome needed improvements. Speed, design, and profiles were areas where Arc excelled, making the modern browser much more pleasant to use.
Fast forward to three years later. AI blows up. It gets so good that it turns into the modern search engine.
Arc starts to receive fewer feature updates, and the team at the browser company seems to be silent.
Shortly thereafter, the internet is hyped up about this new product that the browser company is making. It seems to have some really cool uses with AI and has an amazing demo video. The browser company seems to be super excited about this new product they are building.
And then we wait.
Six months later, we finally hear about Dia again; it finally has an alpha that people can test. It's invite-only, so you have to know somebody who knows somebody. At first, we’re all really excited to see what this new product is, but some of us are instantly disappointed…
It's been six entire months, and almost all the features they demoed in the video don’t even exist in the alpha.
To me personally, this reflects extremely badly on a company. You have a full team not pushing any updates on Arc, and SIX MONTHS to build something.
Now, to be fair to the browser company, I love the work they have done, and maybe they are just working behind the scenes and we just aren't seeing a lot, but it's not very convincing.
Shortly thereafter, the browser company decides to discontinue Arc. They say that it will continue to receive security updates but will no longer get new features. The browser we all spent three years in has been thrown away for a pretty basic chat box.
To me, this is the death of the modern browser. Web browsers have come to a halt; people just use what is already there; there's no innovation.
So what will the future of the web browser look like? Will it always be stagnant? How could it be improved upon? These are questions that I still don't completely have answers to. Only time will tell.
-SD
April 19, 2022. A special day that most of us probably don’t know, but it holds so much significance.
On this day, Arc Browser was released.
Arc was different from Chrome in all the ways that Chrome needed improvements. Speed, design, and profiles were areas where Arc excelled, making the modern browser much more pleasant to use.
Fast forward to three years later. AI blows up. It gets so good that it turns into the modern search engine.
Arc starts to receive fewer feature updates, and the team at the browser company seems to be silent.
Shortly thereafter, the internet is hyped up about this new product that the browser company is making. It seems to have some really cool uses with AI and has an amazing demo video. The browser company seems to be super excited about this new product they are building.
And then we wait.
Six months later, we finally hear about Dia again; it finally has an alpha that people can test. It's invite-only, so you have to know somebody who knows somebody. At first, we’re all really excited to see what this new product is, but some of us are instantly disappointed…
It's been six entire months, and almost all the features they demoed in the video don’t even exist in the alpha.
To me personally, this reflects extremely badly on a company. You have a full team not pushing any updates on Arc, and SIX MONTHS to build something.
Now, to be fair to the browser company, I love the work they have done, and maybe they are just working behind the scenes and we just aren't seeing a lot, but it's not very convincing.
Shortly thereafter, the browser company decides to discontinue Arc. They say that it will continue to receive security updates but will no longer get new features. The browser we all spent three years in has been thrown away for a pretty basic chat box.
To me, this is the death of the modern browser. Web browsers have come to a halt; people just use what is already there; there's no innovation.
So what will the future of the web browser look like? Will it always be stagnant? How could it be improved upon? These are questions that I still don't completely have answers to. Only time will tell.
-SD