Arc Browser's Maker Releases First Beta of Its New AI-Powered Browser 'Dia'

Recently the Browser Company (the startup behind the Arc web browser) switched over to building a new AI-powered browser — and its beta has just been released, reports TechCrunch, "though you'll need an invite to try it out."

The Chromium-based browser has a URL/search bar that also "acts as the interface for its in-built AI chatbot" which can "search the web for you, summarize files that you upload, and automatically switch between chat and search functions." The Browser Company's CEO Josh Miller has of late acknowledged how people have been using AI tools for all sorts of tasks, and Dia is a reflection of that. By giving users an AI interface within the browser itself, where a majority of work is done these days, the company is hoping to slide into the user flow and give people an easy way to use AI, cutting out the need to visit the sites for tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude...

Users can also ask questions about all the tabs they have open, and the bot can even write up a draft based on the contents of those tabs. To set your preferences, all you have to do is talk to the chatbot to customize its tone of voice, style of writing, and settings for coding. Via an opt-in feature called History, you can allow the browser to use seven days of your browsing history as context to answer queries.
The Browser Company will give all existing Arc members access to the beta immediately, according to the article, "and existing Dia users will be able to send invites to other users."

The article points out that Google is also adding AI-powered features to Chrome...

Plugin

[sunderland56]

Couldn't this be done as a browser plugin instead? It's just an alternate search engine.

Re:Plugin

[AleRunner]

Browser plugins don't get access to all the user's data so really don't give you the complete overview this does. It's not close to a substitute.

Oh wait, you were thinking from the user's point of view?? Sorry, nobody cares.

Re:

[Big Hairy Gorilla]

How would we take all your data and simultaneously stop that delicious data from being taken by your current browser? You'll have to use our browser. We don't want to share.

How to escape - the first question for all

[AleRunner]

If you committed your workflow to Arc, you are probably wondering how to escape as quick as possible. Unfortunately Arc did a bunch of valuable advances which it isn't totally trivial to replace, but think of it as a lesson in why you should never commit to a product controlled by a company without clear substitutes. Here are some ideas to look into (wiith either open source or at least alternative suppliers) .

* Zen browswer
* sideberry exension for Firefox

What else?

Re:

[markdavis]

>"think of it as a lesson in why you should never commit to a product controlled by a company without clear substitutes."

Or one that bases its work on Google-controlled code.
Or one that doesn't support Linux as an OS option.

Re:

[Big Hairy Gorilla]

mistake number 1: committing your workflow to Arc

(I'm a committed builder of things, I always look for dependencies)

The new "social browser"

[xack]

Remember browsers like Flock and Rockmelt? No, And before them stuff like Neoplanet and the "Mario Golf" browser from Nintendo? Gimmick browsers eventually get boring. At the end of the day, browsers should just go back, forward, reload, search and address, maybe with tabs, and leave the rest to extensions. Opera used to boast about fitting on a floppy disk. Like it or not, the consolidation in the browser space is due to the fact that most people don't want browser innovation.

Re:

[AleRunner]

Unfortunately not entirely true. Ineviably most of us are using a bunch of communication apps like gmail/slack/discord etc. For the ones you use regularly you might want to install the native app, though often these are very close to malware/spyware. For ones you use occasionally or don't trust enough, you want to use the web app and you want to control it's behavior. E.g. you don't want your corporate identity to see your private cookies. In that case Arc does a bunch of useful things whilst dia likely doe

Re: The new "social browser"

[paul_engr]

No, extensions are bad. That's why google killed manifest v2. Oh wait, no, you're an end user. You want extensions. Fuck you give me your data

Dia?

[ebunga]

More like Diaf ai junk.

nope

[markdavis]

>"Recently the Browser Company (the startup behind the Arc web browser) switched over to building a new AI-powered browser"

No thanks. Last thing I want is an "AI infected" browser.

>The Chromium-based browser has

DOUBLE no thanks. Not giving any mind-share or power-share over the hundreds of machines I oversee to Google.

>[per wikipedia] for macOS and is also available for [MS-]Windows, iOS and Android. "

So not even Linux support. So I guess that is TRIPLE no thanks.

Lipstick on a pig

[Anonymous Coward]

Just another wrapper around Chromium?

Here's a fucking insane idea

[paul_engr]

Someone go back and refactor chrome 32 with none of the stupid bloat spyware AI shit, none of the regressive and horrific anti-user UX shit, and just modern security patches but no changes to the UI at all.