— problems — 3 min read
Hi,
I am Aman, and this safe space is where I am most raw with my thoughts, hop on if you'd like to interact with them :))
This chapter is about my current set of frustrations with the browser world and how we as a industry don't build for the minority.
I onboarded to the internet with Internet Explorer and later moved to Chrome, primarily because of the "Google" brand and the other reason is because Microsoft edge absolutely sucks, the UI does not give me a vibe I can be familiar with.
But the browser landscape didn’t stop there, new players kept reshaping how we experience the web. Fast forward to 2023, I found myself drawn to Arc.
Arc had a bunch of opinionated takes on the interface which made it a very compelling option.
Vertical tab management: It allowed me to create folders, turning my browsing space into a file management system.
Browser profiles: I cannot stress the importance of this for someone like me who keeps work stuff and personal stuff separate and yes I know that Chrome also allows me to create email profiles but there is an inherent friction in Chrome while switching between windows, Arc allowed me to switch between profiles without needing to switch windows which was a huge interface win compared to chrome.
Notes: I’ve always liked the idea of the browser being my primary interface for everything. With notes built directly into it, dumping all the unstructured thoughts from my brain suddenly became effortless.
Favourites: Arc allowed me to pin approximately 9-10 essential apps as favourites similar to the "pinned" feature in Google Chrome but it is not quite the same, Vertical tab management in arc makes it easier to divide the browsing window into parts:
This categorisation is a game changer for me, it allows me to divide my browsing window into pieces such as:
and many more depending on my use case.
cmd + t: The command window for navigating to new URLs and shortcuts to various apps was incredibly fast, almost like having Raycast built directly into the browser with LLM features were layered on top.
Web apps: I was using my browser as my OS for the most part with web versions of apps like Spotify, Slack, Figma etc. It did not feel slow and it gave me a great perspective into how these companies attend their their web users.
But that’s what makes the recent decline even more disappointing. Ever since The Browser Company pivoted, Arc has gotten laggier and worse, as if they left users behind to chase something else.
Arc has completely rewired my browsing habits, vertical files, one-tap profiles, handy shortcuts, and instant search have become must haves for me. Going back to Chrome feels outdated. Safari’s sidebar tries to fill the gap, but it’s janky, and Zen isn’t much better.
There is an inherent slowness I feel when using zen, it is not fluid like Arc and and some web apps like slack often causes audio and video issues while I am on a huddle.
I have used Dia, and while design wise it feels very superior and cleaner compared to Chrome, it is a delight to browse the web and consume inspirational stuff in Dia, but it is still not there yet, and I am very hesitant to bet on The Browser Company again since they have abandoned their users once.
My general frustration here is with the industry not solving for the 1% of users. In this article, Arc mentions that the features that delighted me were used at statistically low levels and were restricting them from building truly agentic interfaces for the web.
There was a certain section of users who enjoyed using Arc purely because of these opinionated interface decisions, and it is sometimes absolutely okay to build for this segment. Building something that people truly love is very difficult and requires a lot of care, and I take my frustration with the current state of web browsers as a personal note not to sacrifice the minority for the majority.