Noah's Arc: A Digital Spaceship

Arc from The Browser Company is a magical piece of technology

September 21, 2022

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Initially published on September 21, 2022

I just read one of Packy's new posts:

Indistinguishable from Magic

Magical Technology: iPod, Spotify, Figma, AI Art, Arc, web3, and beyond

https://www.notboring.co/p/indistinguishable-from-magic

I haven't read a lot of newsletters recently, but this reminded me why I enjoyed reading Not Boring so much. It's nice to remember the magic and amazing things technology can do. One magical experience for me this past year was using sign in with Ethereum for basically any dapp. My mom had a magical experience using Apple Pay for the first time this summer. She made a comment about it practically every time she used it. I was on a call today and got asked why I was interested in technology, to which I didn't really have a great or prepared answer. This magic that we experience using technology is definitely one of the reasons. And I want to tell you guys about some of that magic.

Arc from The Browser Company

I don't think most of us really think about the browser much, but it's probably the one piece of software we all use most. So much of our lives are digital, many online (especially with more and more web apps), and the browser is our portal into the world. It hasn't actually changed much in the past 10/15/20 years. It's also dominated by Google Chrome.

It's funny because when I finally downloaded Arc and started using it yesterday (you can get early access if you're a student here), I have windows and tabs open in five different browsers: Brave, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Mighty. Now make that six with Arc, but I have a feeling Arc will be the only one left standing soon (for me, personally).

You might be asking why the hell I would have all five browsers open at once. Well, there's two main reasons. One is to just try them all out, and see which browser is simply the best for me. It started with using Brave for privacy and security reasons, and then I learned Firefox may be better for that. Then I wanted to try Mighty because I like trying new software out. The second reason is to use different browsers for different purposes.

Arc answers both of those questions for me. All the browsers before looked and functioned pretty much exactly the same, with a few design tweaks here and there. Arc easily stands out from the rest. Aesthetically and design-wise, yes, but this is necessary for the functionality of the browser. It's like a whole new operating system for the web. To compete with the big tech giants of Google and Apple, you have to create something completely new. You're not gonna beat those behemoths with the support they have at their own game. I think the product they've created is great and just a better user experience than your typical browser. You can also really personalize your browser and experience with Arc, which leads me to spaces.

Spaces addresses my second concern- using different browsers for different purposes. This actually is very much inline with the principles discussed in Spaceship You. Have different (physical) spaces for different activities: sleeping, eating and lounging and entertainment, working and creating, exercising. How do you do that in the digital world, though? Well, you can use different devices, different accounts, or I guess even different browsers, which I was experimenting with. It's tough because we do lots of work and creating on the web, but we also entertain ourselves, shop, book trips, organize events, do school work, etc. Arc has an amazing solution. You can create different spaces for whatever different activities or needs you have. Work, personal, school, or for specific projects. Literally whatever you want. Then you can customize the color and themes of each space, and the pinned tabs (sort of like bookmarks) you have in each space. These different spaces separate our activities and give our brains cue for what we're about to do in the digital world. If you want to hear more about this, go watch this video. I promise I didn't plan to write this after Spaceship You, but sometimes you should take notice of recurring themes in your life.

I have a few more thoughts about this browser and the company, but I just recommend you go sign up for it and start using the product. It's truly magical. You can check out The Browser company and other links from their Twitter.

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