I Dig Arc Search

But not for the reason you might think.

Matt Birchler: Browse for me gets a big 🤨 from me (birchtree. Me)

Since receiving my iPhone 15 Pro, by Action Button has pretty much been only one thing: open the Google app. I like to keep the dozens of disposable Google searches I do every day separate from the Safari tabs I keep open to annoy myself into getting things done. Having that functionality conveniently tucked away in the action button has been surprisingly useful.

After downloading Arc Search, I immediately swapped my Action Button to open it. Now, to be clear, I don't make regular use of the Browse for Me button. In fact, I've only used it once or twice. The reason I use Arc Search on my action button is because it has cleared the very low bar of being better than the Google app^[1].

It opens the keyboard automatically, keeps old tabs easily accessible, looks nice, and breaks webpages far less often than Google's app. I've ended up with a common workflow of searching in Google and then having to open the link in Safari because the Google app can't display the page properly, or some functionality breaks. Arc Search, so far, has necessitated this workflow far less.

In the beginning, I experimented with using the Action Button to open Safari or use a shortcut to automatically search Google, but those solutions were always slow and clunky, and I always ended up with a bunch of useless Safari tabs open. It's unfortunate since Safari is by far the best way to browse the web on iOS. Arc Search has solidifed itself as second best in my book.

The Browser Company continues to inject some intrigue into a market that's been stale for more than 15 years, and I have to applaud them for that. However, I'm not the first to point out that the Browse for Me button is probably an existential crisis for the internet as we know it. Given the current state of AI, it's currently little more than a fun novelty to mess with, but I expect it to advance rapidly.

This leaves Arc Search is a weird spot. For me, it's a more pleasant way to do Google searches. But that isn't going to bring many others to the app, and it certainly won't make The Browser Company any money. Its hard to figure out what the endgame is here. The Browser Company makes a product for browsing the web (Arc), and then made another product that lets an AI do all the browsing for you. I'm interested to see how they reconcile this space.

All that said, just over the horizon is a wild new frontier of browser apps, after Apple opens up iOS to non-WebKit browsers. A new frontier that those of us who do not live in the EU will sadly only get to salivate over.

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1. Google is, of course, infamous for throwing the entire iOS design guide out the window and their apps suffer greatly for it. ↩︎