Arc Search's new Call Arc feature lets you ask questions by 'making a phone call' | TechCrunch
Call Arc can help answer immediate and small questions, according to the company.
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Call Arc can help answer immediate and small questions, according to the company.
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Startups are not shying away from big projects. That’s my takeaway from news that The Browser Company’s Arc browser is now generally available for Windows users, just as Island raised a massive grip of capital for its enterprise-focused browser tool. It’s very encouraging to see startups going after core pieces of technology and not just the apps that sit atop platforms.
Of course, Chromium still reigns supreme, but unseating that horse might take a while.
Elsewhere in Startup Land this week on Equity, we dug into Chowdeck’s $2.5 million round. It’s a Nigerian company that is putting up impressive growth with its food delivery business in a particularly difficult market. Keep an eye on it, since Nigeria is a big market and no single company there has its delivery business on lock. Yet, at least.
We also took a look at the Corelight’s new $150 million fundraise, which is a good piece to chew on given its valuation and revenue growth.
On the venture side of things, we discussed two stories: First, Intuition’s bet on the consumer market is particularly interesting. From Paris, the fund is betting that going counter to the B2B SaaS narrative is the best way to make the most money. Second, we see a new venture capital supergroup forming: Axios reports that investors with backgrounds at a16z, Bessemer and Index are building a new firm.
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.
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For the full interview transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, read on, or check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.
The Browser Company, makers of the Arc web browser, released its Windows version today. The company started testing the Windows client in December, and it said that more than 150,000 people have been using it.
The startup, which aims to replace your current browser, recently raised $50 million at a $550 million valuation. Today, The Browser Company opened access to its Windows version to all users without any waitlist. Previously, the waitlist had more than 1 million people on it.
The company started with an invite-only Mac-based version in 2022 and opened it to everyone in July 2023.
Image Credits: The Browser Company
The Browser Company decided to build the Windows version in Swift so it could reuse and share the majority of the codebase with the Mac version. Swift is a programming language that Apple originally designed to develop iPhone and Mac apps. Using Swift on Windows will make it easier to maintain feature parity in the future. The company has also written extensively about its experience building in Swift on Windows to help developers looking to port their Mac apps.
Arc on Windows has some core features of the Mac version, including the sidebar with most used webpages pinned up top; Spaces, which are like folders for different sets of tabs for different tasks such as “Work,” “Entertainment,” “Vacation” and “Notetaking”; profiles for separate browsing data and preferences; split view for opening multiple tabs in a single window; and support for picture-in-picture video player so you can look at other tabs while watching a video clip.
Image Credits: The Browser Company
The Windows team has also included the Peek feature, which was missing from the initial version. Peek lets you see a quick link preview from the pinned and favorites tabs without clicking on the link.
This month, it introduced Arc Sync across devices to let users access their sidebar, spaces, folders, and tabs are accessible across devices. This feature will work on the Windows version as well.
One of the primary differentiators between the Windows and Mac versions is that the former supports touchscreens.
However, the newly released Windows versions miss features like Little Arc, which is a floating browser window for temporary uses such as opening a link. The company didn’t specify if the Windows version has AI-powered features such as link preview summaries, renaming downloaded files, instant links to serve websites directly, and automatically updating live folders.
Currently, Arc for Windows only supports Windows 11, but the startup is working on support for Windows 10.
The company also said that it wants to bring feature parity to both Mac and Windows but didn’t provide a timeline for it.
Earlier this year, The Browser Company released a mobile app for iPhone called Arc Search. With the latest release, the company said it plans to release an Arc Search client for Android.
Fresh off the heels of raising $50 million at a $550 million valuation in March, The Browser Company continues to bring in more features to its Arc browser, set up to provide a genuine alternative to Chrome and other dominant players in the internet browser market. Today it is introducing a new feature called Live Folders, which will automatically create and update tabs in a folder based on events like someone adding a file to a shared folder.
Live Folders comes as the company also builds out more AI-powered features to create more dynamic and automated user experiences. One plan has been to build an AI agent that browses the web on your behalf, although this has yet to launch.
The company is launching Live Folders initially with GitHub pull request support. When a user creates a GitHub pull request, Arc automatically creates a Live Folder in the sidebar.
The folder will automatically update tabs based on pull requests you have created, assigned to, requested a review for or mentioned. The folder will automatically clear out tabs with completed requests and tasks.
If there is a new pull request when your Live Folder is collapsed, the browser will peek it out to highlight the new request to you.
Image Credits: Arc Browser (screen capture)
Arc is aiming to build a new kind of tracking system with this feature to help users with their daily work. The company teased this feature in February. When it asked users about support for types of systems for the Live Folders feature, GitHub was the top requested service.
The company said it is focused on integrating services to Live Folders that are treated toward collaboration, such as Google Calendar, Google Drive and Figma. It added that the tech behind Live Folders is flexible, so it could also adopt things like updates from RSS feeds.
Earlier this month, the startup’s CEO, Josh Miller, announced that the company had hired former Safari designer Charlie Deets and former WhatsApp designer Christine Rode to build different interface designs.
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