Image: Denise Bergert
Do not expect too much in the future from the Arc Browser. The browser’s developer acknowledged over the weekend that Arc is still being maintained but new features are not actively developed.
The explanationis confusing. In a blog, the company explained in a blog that, while they concluded the Arc browser is “incremental”its novel features are not being used either. Just under 6 percent of Arc users used a workspace, or “space” as Arc calls it.
The company wrote: “After a few years of building Arc and shipping it, we began running into a problem we called ‘novelty taxes’. “A lot people loved Arc – if you’re reading this, you may be one of them – and we’d benefited from consistent, organic expansion since Day One. Arc is currently in limbo. For most people, Arc’s interface was too complex, with too much to learn and too little reward. Arc is “too complicated to break away from Chrome,” according to the company, and it’s their “secret sauce.” Isis a browser that will be “AI-first”according to the company. This browser is currently being tested in alpha.
According to the company, the problem is that ADK has been split between two browsers and prevents the company from moving ahead with Arc. “While we’d love someday to open-source Arc, we can’t meaningfully do that without also opening-sourcing ADK. ADK remains a core value of our company. It doesn’t mean that it will never happen. We’d love to share our creations with the world when it’s no longer a risk for our team or investors. But we’re still not there.”
According to The Browser Company of New York, it believes that the world is going to move on from current browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome and that traditional web pages will no longer be the foundation. The company said that “imagine writing an essay to justify why you left your candle business when electric light was first introduced.” “Electric intelligence has arrived — and it would not be naive of our company to pretend that it doesn’t fundamentally alter the kind of product it is we need to create to meet the current moment.” The metaphors used here, which were carried over to the Arc browser’s aesthetic, were a bit too twee.
Maybe Dia will lend a helping hand for those of us still stuck in the olden days. Perhaps not. There is certainly room for products that want to break from history and embrace a future powered by AI. This limits your market appeal, and also locks you in to a younger aesthetic, which, incidentally seems to be aggressively refusing the use AI. I’m glad to admit that I do not quite understand the company’s goals. Maybe Dia will explain it all one day.
Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld.
Mark has been writing for PCWorld since the last decade. He has 30 years experience covering technology. He has written over 3,500 articles, covering PC microprocessors and peripherals, Microsoft Windows, and other topics, for PCWorld. Mark has written for PC Magazine, Byte and eWEEK as well as Popular Science, Electronic Buyers’ News and Electronic Buyers’ News. He also shared a Jesse H. Neal Award with Popular Science for breaking news. He recently gave away a collection consisting of several dozen Thunderbolt Docks and USB-C Hubs, because his office has no room.
