The Browser Company launched Arc’s first iPhone companion app last year, allowing users to save links for later use in the desktop app. The startup has launched a new mobile app, called Arc Search, which aims to focus on the search experience.
The app’s AI-powered selection feature, “Browse for me” returns a well-constructed web page with information about the search query. The feature, powered by models from OpenAI and others, reads at least six web pages and creates a new page with different sections.
What is Arc Search?
Arc Search is a “super search engine”, when you search with Arc Search and click on the “Browse for me” button, what this app does, is about using AI to create a web page with the most relevant results related to the query you made.
You can search for anything, how to cook a dish, a character… For example, if you search for how to cook “Madrid stew”, Arc Search creates a page for you with different sections such as “Ingredients”, ” Necessary Utensils”, “Cooking Process” and additional tips. The page also has lots of helpful photos and videos to guide you through the process.
If you ask him about a public figure, he will tell you their biography or filmography, using media like Wikipedia, Filmaffinity or Sensacine.
These pages are great for getting information at a glance, and you can also use the “Dive Deeper” section to explore additional links listed for the topic. However, at the moment you cannot share these pages with anyone unless you take a screenshot.
What is Apple’s official browser?
If users don’t want to use the AI-based feature, they can simply tap the query to use Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.whatever you have set as default on your mobile device, in case of iPhone, Safari browser is provided by default.
There is also a reader mode for all web pages for easy reading and you can also bookmark the web page. But there is no folder system to store these bookmarks.
The Arc Search browser also archives tabs after a day, although this is customizable, to prevent you from being overloaded with different tabs. You can view your open tabs via the tab switcher in the bottom bar, or you can swipe and hold from the left edge of the screen.
Additionally, Arc Search automatically blocks GDPR and newsletter pop-ups, ads, and trackers. Unlike the first companion browser, you can set it as default on Apple’s marvelous iPhone.
Arc search features
Josh Miller, CEO of Browser Company, said in a thread on X (formerly Twitter) that the startup wanted to create the fastest way to search for things, since that’s what most people do with phone browsers. So it started with a search bar in the middle. And it opens with a keyboard so you can start typing the query immediately.
With its new page-building search feature, the new Arc Search browser wants to make you feel like you’re interacting with an AI agent that will do the heavy lifting of finding objects, summarizing content and presenting it correctly .
We’ve seen this kind of approach with Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) or Perplexing AI. On another side, Browsers have mainly introduced AI-based features to summarize pages or to help you write articles. Arc Search attempts to merge these two feature surfaces.
When will Arc Search be available?
For now, Arc will keep your mobile companion alive to save linksbut plans to merge the two browser clients later, without a specific date.
Additionally, the company announced plans to launch cross-browser synchronization. Josh Miller said in his thread that as the company begins to accelerate the Windows client rollout, it can’t rely on iCloud alone. That’s why the team is building its own Arc sync experience, which will launch soon.
Arc started with a waitlist system for Mac and made it free last year for anyone to download. Its Windows client, which is in beta, still has a waiting list system for user registration. With this new Arc Search client, the company wanted to have a low-barrier entry point for users, where they wouldn’t need to create an account and start browsing immediately.
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