Google is Building an Experimental New Browser and a New Kind of Web App (theverge.com) 18
Google's Chrome team has built an experimental browser called Disco that takes a query or prompt, opens a cluster of related tabs, and then generates a custom application tailored to whatever task the user is trying to accomplish. The browser launched Thursday as an experiment in Google's Search Labs.
GenTabs, the core feature powering Disco, are information-rich pages created by Google's Gemini AI models -- ask for travel tips and the system builds a planner app; ask for study help and it creates a flashcard system. Disco -- named partly for fun and partly as shorthand for "discovery" -- started as a hackathon project inside Google before catching the team's imagination.
Parisa Tabriz, who leads the Chrome team, said that Disco is not intended as a general-purpose browser and is not an attempt to cannibalize Chrome. The experiment aims to test what happens when users move from simply having tabs to generating personalized, curated applications on demand. The capability relies on features in the recently launched Gemini 3, which can create one-off interactive interfaces and build miniature apps on the fly rather than just returning text or images.
GenTabs, the core feature powering Disco, are information-rich pages created by Google's Gemini AI models -- ask for travel tips and the system builds a planner app; ask for study help and it creates a flashcard system. Disco -- named partly for fun and partly as shorthand for "discovery" -- started as a hackathon project inside Google before catching the team's imagination.
Parisa Tabriz, who leads the Chrome team, said that Disco is not intended as a general-purpose browser and is not an attempt to cannibalize Chrome. The experiment aims to test what happens when users move from simply having tabs to generating personalized, curated applications on demand. The capability relies on features in the recently launched Gemini 3, which can create one-off interactive interfaces and build miniature apps on the fly rather than just returning text or images.
Sounds like a cancer (Score:2)
probably without ad block... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Ask for porn and... (Score:2)
Security nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
Tab-vertising (Score:3)
How many of tabs will be the actually helpful, not-sponsored content? 1 out of 10?
Title correction: (Score:5, Insightful)
World's Top Privacy Rapist is Building an Experimental New Browser and a New Kind of Privacy Raping App
There FTFY.
Re: Title correction: (Score:3)
That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? ...a stretch at the back.
Sorry but... (Score:2)
...about 1% of the population will think that "Disco" is for 'Discovery'.
The programmers must be 17 or so.
Not a web browser (Score:2)
It's interesting they say 'browser', sounds more like an 'application generator' because what they're describing isn't really a conventional web browser, it sounds like an application based probably on various web standards at best with a web interface. It's not performing a search to direct you to relevant websites (can you use it to browse in the traditional sense even?). Sounds like it's using the websites almost like an API, pulling data/info from them basically and then generating application from it?
Browser Mimic box, what could go wrong? (Score:2)
It sounds like Google's answer to Microsoft Power Automate, with the results rendered in a way that mimics a browser GUI.
Fitting, since the results are likely to be similar to what happens when RPG characters think they're opening a treasure/loot box and it turns out to be a toothy Mimic.
Re: (Score:2)
Not only is it not a browser, it's also not an application generator. It seems like they're re-using terms people know to hype a new experimental product.
The whole point of a broswer ... (Score:4, Insightful)
... is that it consumes standardized, structured text, has a consistent UI, etc.
This sounds ... like not that.
Re: (Score:1)
That's so 80s. Browsers got a lot more functionality in the 90s. You were there, right?
What I want (Score:2)
Is something like YouTube, except when they show a clip from something, or a slide, or anything, I can click on that and it opens in a new tab as the video continues to play. That would be nice.
what happens .. (Score:2)
May I Be The First To Say– (Score:2)
Disco sucks.
The browser AI slopper tool, I mean.
(Oh, not the music. The beat and grooves are actually quite good and seem to have a rythmic affect on– wait, what are my shoulders doing? Oh dang, there goes the hips. And yeah, now the feet are mov– Whoops, a spin. I haven't moved like this since 6th grade gym class in 1978!)
Disco (Score:2)
Disco is the next step after Cisco.