The Browser Company makes no effort to hide its gleeful disdain for the reigning King of Search, also known as Google. It is openly taking aim at the tech giant’s advertising business with new features for Arc, its AI-powered web browser.
Announced on Thursday, shots were clearly audible when the company unveiled its Instant Links feature, which completely eliminates the results page during web searches. Instead of providing a list of search results after users type in their queries, Instant Links automatically opens up links and tabs related to the search in Arc. The way the company puts it, they want to cut out the middle man—and also cut off the ad revenue associated with search queries.
“Search engines make a whole lot of money when you stop at that middleman webpage and just check out a few ads really quickly,” Josh Miller, The Browser Company’s CEO and co-founder, said in a quirky release video. “But if we [stop] and just say, ‘What does the person want, and how do we do it as quickly as possible? [We] just put it right there when you ask for it.”
The Browser Company also wants to use AI to reduce human effort during search and essentially make you lazier (which my spirit animal Snorlax approves of). That’s in full display with Arc Explore, another new feature announced on Thursday that scans the Internet and suggests things based on your queries, such as new restaurants to try or new recipes. Arc Explore then presents its suggestions in a clean and easy-to-understand webpage and includes the sources it consulted.
Miller also unveiled the Arc Search app with Browse for Me on iOS. As we noted in our Arc Search review, the Browse for Me feature aims to transform the traditional search experience. When typing in a query, such as “history of Douglas Park in Santa Monica, California,” Browse for Me will create a custom webpage with bullet points related to the search. These can include the park’s history, top search results, and when the park was renamed.
Lastly, the company announced Live Folder, an RSS-like feed that puts content on topics you like in a folder in the Arc browser and lets you know when there’s something new out. Live Folder is currently in beta and won’t be available until Feb. 15. Similarly, Arc Explore isn’t out yet either and doesn’t have a specific release date.
Instant Links and Arc Search with Browse for Me are available for tinkering, though, and according to Miller, they won’t be the last new features from The Browser Company. The CEO said the company aims to ship something new every week.
