Arc does some things right. Combining tabs and bookmarks into one cohesive display, that allows the moving of one to the other, makes sense. Having a floating command bar that does more than just "open this URL" as well.
Others have tried to solve the intersection of new discoveries and daily reading workflows, but only Arc seems to present the latter in a way that does not get in the way of the former and does not require N keypresses to get there.
Sidebar plus floating URL bar means much less window chrome, which is (especially for people like me who haven't owned a monitor or a desktop PC for a decade) a welcome freeing experience that maximizes screen estate.
Having a baked in tracker stripper for a one-keypress URL copy is, especially for people like me who copy dozens of URL daily, a boon. No other browser seems to think, that this is something that is needed. And most users seem to have arranged themselves with two keystrokes to highlight the URL bar and copying the contents, followed by dozens of deletes to remove trackers.
Sure, it's small stuff and easily waved off, but if none of the other browsers wants to break with the Netscape early days paradigms, Arc it is[1].
[1] Zen Browser tries, but then, that Mozilla underpinning often sabotages the experience.
> Combining tabs and bookmarks into one cohesive display
I've tried to experiment with different ways to present browsing information. One approach is to present the tabs, bookmarks, and history on one open cohesive page, and allows searching all of them at once. Of course the devils are in the details, how to effectively navigate to different sections of the page, how to make sure performance is good, etc. I made a browser extension to try out the idea [1].
> Combining tabs and bookmarks into one cohesive display, that allows the moving of one to the other
While I haven't used arc and don't have experience how that feature feels, I think the over 20 year old concept of a bookmarks menu, and tabs, as separate things is the best and never needed solving, and any attempt be different is worse than the original (like android firefox and its 'collections'. Why? Or Linux file managers hiding bookmarks different locations that operate differently called "Go", "Places" and actual "Bookmarks" that change through versions and sometimes coexist for some reason so you never know which menu it's going to be this time)
Nowhere on their site (that I can find) do they mention that. There's lots of sales talk about it does all the work and adapts, etc., but nothing about what it actually does.
I can't see a reason to change browsers. What are the features that Arc has that other browsers don't have?
Their sales pitch is the problem they need to solve.
Firefox also has a "Copy without URL tracking" option in the URL bar context menu. It's not one-keypress, but clearly a tracker stripper is not Arc-exclusive.
Also no idea what you are talking about with Zen's "Mozilla underpinning sabotaging the experience".
Others have tried to solve the intersection of new discoveries and daily reading workflows, but only Arc seems to present the latter in a way that does not get in the way of the former and does not require N keypresses to get there.
Sidebar plus floating URL bar means much less window chrome, which is (especially for people like me who haven't owned a monitor or a desktop PC for a decade) a welcome freeing experience that maximizes screen estate.
Having a baked in tracker stripper for a one-keypress URL copy is, especially for people like me who copy dozens of URL daily, a boon. No other browser seems to think, that this is something that is needed. And most users seem to have arranged themselves with two keystrokes to highlight the URL bar and copying the contents, followed by dozens of deletes to remove trackers.
Sure, it's small stuff and easily waved off, but if none of the other browsers wants to break with the Netscape early days paradigms, Arc it is[1].
[1] Zen Browser tries, but then, that Mozilla underpinning often sabotages the experience.