Arc and SigmaOS want to shake up a ossified market, ultra-dominated by the Google tool… like many others before them. Whether their innovative interfaces will be enough to shake things up remains to be seen.
He hasn’t even come out, but he’s already been talked about a lot. Arc is a Web browser developed by a young start-up called “The Browser Company” which aims – a little crazy – to make you switch tool for surfing. It is indeed a very daring bet, as Chrome crushes an already rich competition, whether on desktop or mobile. According to the latest figures published by Statcounter, the Google browser held almost 67% market share on computers in April, and 64% on smartphones… Leaving only crumbs, or almost, to each of its competitors.
Can The Browser Company succeed when so many others (Brave, Vivaldi, Edge and so many others) that came after Chrome have so far failed to break through? The company firmly believes in it and in a few arguments to put forward. It seems to benefit from a solid team, made up of former engineers and designers from Amazon, Tesla, Snap or… Google Chrome. And as Bloomberg recalls in a long article dedicated to Arc, she raised $25 million to carry out her project.
An “OS for the Web”?
Arc, currently in private beta, swaps the good old address bar and the tabs above for a menu on the left. It offers, pell-mell, to create “browsing spaces” bringing together your favorite sites according to your centers of interest, without necessarily presenting their entire URL. It also highlights your favorite web apps (Gmail, Spotify, your calendar, etc.) to avoid multiple open tabs and access them faster. It also offers an integrated search tool to find content more quickly. It also comes with an ad blocker by default. So many ergonomic ideas that would make it a “operating system for the web ”, according to the words of the founder of the Browser Company, Josh Miller, reported by Bloomberg.
But all these ideas, we have also already crossed them in many previous browsers. Edge, for example, offers vertical tabs. Vivaldi is so “customisable” that it is possible to configure its interface as it pleases. And other exotic browsers, like Stack, already offer a radically redesigned interface to speed up your surfing sessions. Finally, isn’t Chrome OS already an “OS for the web”? Arc seems rather to play the card of design and “user experience”… but will that be enough?
it’s called Arc pic.twitter.com/1dl2H2Ca4e
— The Browser Company (@browsercompany) April 19, 2022
SigmaOS, a supercharged Safari
The Browser Company is in any case not the only company to want to “reinvent” the browser. Launched last year, SigmaOS – which uses Safari’s Webkit engine and is only available on Mac – also offers a modernized interface and more or less new functions: classification of your tabs by “workgroups”, possibility of put pages on “standby”, navigation by keyboard shortcuts… and even a split-screen function to quickly bring up a Twitter stream or an Apple Music playlist. A few days ago, the creators of SigmaOS also unveiled “Lazy Search”, a universal search inspired by Spotlight, which allows from a simple dialog box to search the Web, but also in its history, its brands -pages…
SigmaOS has only a small number of users, but has built up over the months a small fan base who never ceases to praise his merits on social networks. Its designers really need this free publicity. Because just like Arc, SigmaOS has another particularity, unprecedented in the small world of browsers: it is paid! If a free version does exist, it is limited in terms of functionality, and a monthly subscription, not cheap (8 dollars per month) is necessary to enjoy the full experience (synchronization between devices, blocking of advertisements… ) A serious obstacle to its adoption, no doubt… Like the absence of a mobile version, which is nevertheless essential at a time when the smartphone is very often our main computer. Chrome probably still has a bright future ahead of it.
Source :
Bloomberg