Who Is The Browser Company of New York?

The Browser Company of New York, is a company, in New York, that makes web browsers. They came into the scene a few years ago as a startup with investment money and a really compelling product, the Arc Browser. What made this Chrome based product different was the UX and UI decisions the team made when building. Instead of copying the general visual structure that most browsers have, they tried to approach every feature differently, by thinking how it could actually help the user, and how it could solve actual problems that users had when using everyday browsers. Some particular examples that I like are:

1. Tabs get “archived” after some preset time (default 24 hours), making users who like to hoard be more mindful of their tabs.
2. Tab organizing feature- organize your tabs automatically be context into relevant folders.
3. Being able to “peek” into a link, for sites you don’t really want to open a tab for.
4. Split screen- quickly and easily move any tab into a split screen with other tabs.

There are many other features that I didn’t incorporate into my own workflow, but I think many people were fans of them.

The Arc browser quickly became very popular amongst a devoted crowd. It was genuinenly an exciting time to see what new features are introduced with every new release. Unfortunately however, the company still saw the Arc Browser as too niche of a product, and could not devise a path to profitbility, despite the fanbase. I suppose they had taken far too much money in VC funding, and were needing a big payout someway or another.

So, the company did something rather bizarre, and decide they will no longer develop any new features for the Arc Browser, and will instead start from scratch and build a new browser, called Dia, with a focus on AI and making it the “browser for everyday people”, or something along those lines. That’s pretty much the gist of that, they had tons of other marketing fluff around the browser, but it was seriously misguided and completely tonedef. No one was happy.

Why Do I Care?

Simply beacuse I enjoy and like their products. But I suspect that will change soon.

As of late, The Browser Company of New York announced that they were acquired by Atlassian, so they finally got their big exit that they were looking for, probably.

I genuinely enjoy using the Arc Browser. For many, the fact that you have to register would put them off, and it would normally for me too, but I admire the craft a lot and I think it actually makes my working days better, so it’s worth it.

I have been giving Dia a try for a few months now. The browser is OK, but I can’t help but think the company’s ethos has been lost. With Arc, many of the features they introduced felt like they were solving real problems, even if some of them didn’t solve my problems, I could recognize that a lot of other people did get value from it. The same can’t be said for Dia, and it’s why I think it’s entirely a misguided product.

What their marketing tells me is that their goal is to get the the browser to browse for you. I don’t know if that’s what I want? I don’t think that solves a particular problem for me? And you might say- maybe I don’t understand the vision. But up until now, the features they’ve added do not spark any confidence.

They push features such as “skills”, which are just a list of prompts to give an LLM. I’ve tried to apply them to my workflow, but either I am incredibly uncreative (possibly true), or they are just so useless (or also possible true). Even so, this is supposed to be “the browser for the masses”, so if I don’t get the value of such a feature, why would anyone else’s grandmother?

I like Dia because of two things. The UX/UI interactions & feel of Arc, and the AI sidebar. But mostly the former. The thing is, the polish that the team introduces to the browser is what brings value to me. I need the browser to be a polished, well thought out piece of software that adapts to my browsing needs. I need particular features that make me enjoy browsing more, or make things quicker for me in an intuitive way. I am worried about the trajectory of these browsers, and with the newly added influence of Atlassian, I am afraid most of what I liked about the products will soon dissapear.

But really, this is all a disguised complaint about the trajectory of applications with AI. What puts me off about products like Dia is how their attempts to provide value is just adding more “prompts” or “context” to the LLM and make it sound like it’s world changing. Another example: products like Claude Code would talk about “sub-agents”, sounds incredible! Looking into it, it’s the same LLM just using a different “prompt”. And that’s what product development feels like nowadays.

Anyways, I’ve lost the gas to continue this post. Check out Arc & Dia, and let me know what you think.