1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,280 There's a new web browser that everyone's talking about. 2 00:00:03,280 --> 00:00:07,240 It's called Arc, and it was just released only for Mac and iOS. 3 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:12,760 It claims to be an operating system for the web that will usher in a whole new way of browsing. 4 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:18,800 I'm trying it, and it's pretty neat. But it does, however, face one big problem. 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,160 What web browser do you use? I normally use Google Chrome. Chrome? 6 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:28,440 Safari. Google Chrome, mostly Chrome. But are you willing to switch? 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:31,440 I mostly use Safari, though I've gone through my fair share 8 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:36,240 of browsers over the years. I remember when Firefox was new and gave us tabbed browsing. 9 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:39,640 I even had an Opera era because that was the fastest browser 10 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,840 for my crappy laptop at the time. Why? 11 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:48,960 Everything's integrated. Cross platform, if I have Windows PC, if I have Mac, 12 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,440 they all use Chrome. But Firefox is available cross platform? 13 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:57,520 It's not Google. If Firefox make a search engine that's good enough, 14 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,720 then I'll probably consider it. I want to use Firefox. 15 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,920 I really do. What do you use? You can. I know, but it's so much work. 16 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:08,600 It's so much effort to switch. It's the easiest to use between two different systems, 17 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,040 between Windows and Mac. You can have your favorite, your task bar. 18 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:15,080 Everything's shared in between them. It's just the syncing. 19 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:19,040 It's just the syncing, yeah. Because users don't need to pay up and buy a browser, 20 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,920 it should be really easy to switch around. And yet, few do. 21 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,480 Which is why I asked all my Mac-using colleagues to try ARC out. 22 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:30,880 I'm not interested. I only like Chrome. You Google's shill. 23 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:34,960 He's going to be missing out, because ARC is different enough to be worth trying. 24 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:38,800 Tabs and the address bar are on the left-hand side instead of the top. 25 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,920 This is especially welcome, since websites waste a lot of horizontal space these days. 26 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:47,080 I think it looks beautiful with the vibrant colors, themes, and margins. 27 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,840 That tab sidebar becomes a liability if you're the type to have 28 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:56,440 multiple small browser Windows open at a time. But look what happens when you put it into full screen mode. 29 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:01,440 You can take advantage of split screen to group two or more websites into one tab, 30 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:07,080 just like you can with macOS's full screen mode. Only this is a little more straightforward and convenient. 31 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,480 Plus, a lot of our computer life is spent in a web browser anyway. 32 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:14,040 And to keep you there, there's a built-in sketchpad and notepad, 33 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,720 which are treated just like any other tabs. What stands out to me 34 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:22,840 is that ARC has a different vision for browsing. You can set up profiles to divide your work 35 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,560 in personal life, and they're really easy to switch between. 36 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,360 But ARC will archive the tabs within profiles 37 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:34,520 after only 12 hours. Certainly surprised to open up your computer after a day 38 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:38,180 and find everything you were looking at missing. You have to go into history to get them back 39 00:02:38,180 --> 00:02:43,960 or change the setting to 30 days, like I did. However, there's a well thought out process here. 40 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:49,280 Tabs you use all the time across profiles should be favorited as buttons at the top. 41 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:53,040 And tabs you wanna keep within profiles should get pinned up here. 42 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:55,140 Also, check out this tab layering. 43 00:02:56,040 --> 00:03:00,120 Pretty neat. Outside the main browser window, there's mini ARC Windows, 44 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:04,920 which appear when you click on a web link from within a Mac app. I like how it helps contain and constrain 45 00:03:04,920 --> 00:03:09,600 the web browsing outside of the main browser. If you can adapt to these paradigms, 46 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,960 maybe this could help you become more intentional about your browsing. 47 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:17,500 So does it. The main goal of it was to sort of clean up all your tabs 48 00:03:17,500 --> 00:03:21,120 and have it be a bit more work focused, I guess you could say. 49 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:26,460 You can have a lot more things open at the same time, without having a bunch of clutter in your taskbar. 50 00:03:26,460 --> 00:03:30,140 If I'm at work, I sort of have three to five websites 51 00:03:30,140 --> 00:03:35,660 that I'm constantly using. So those are just the obvious ones. At home, I actually have a different workspace entirely. 52 00:03:35,660 --> 00:03:40,860 So I use the space function. So that's just all the stuff that I generally just check 53 00:03:40,860 --> 00:03:44,660 either in the morning or after work. I tried installing it on my phone, 54 00:03:44,660 --> 00:03:48,420 but it required a desktop to install for some reason. 55 00:03:48,420 --> 00:03:51,580 The phone version of ARC is interesting. I like its design a lot 56 00:03:51,580 --> 00:03:55,940 because buttons feel like buttons, but it is wholly unfinished. 57 00:03:55,940 --> 00:04:01,300 It syncs to your desktop surfing sessions via iCloud, letting you carry on from what you were looking at there. 58 00:04:01,300 --> 00:04:04,340 However, you cannot contribute to it by adding a new tab. 59 00:04:04,340 --> 00:04:09,460 Instead, you can only search in one temporary tab that's gone as soon as you swipe it down, 60 00:04:09,460 --> 00:04:12,980 unless you pin it. I prefer on mobile over desktop. 61 00:04:12,980 --> 00:04:16,620 Really? Cause you can't even like keep tabs in mobile. I'm really simple phone user. 62 00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:21,380 So for like one tab is all I need. What else about the phone version makes it better than the desktop version for you? 63 00:04:21,380 --> 00:04:24,780 The fact that you can change the theme and you can change the icon 64 00:04:24,780 --> 00:04:28,060 that has cute little animations. At first I like it. 65 00:04:28,060 --> 00:04:33,100 I really like the UI. I think it's pretty pretty and like design-wise I like it. 66 00:04:33,100 --> 00:04:37,340 But then when I used it, I didn't like it as much 67 00:04:37,340 --> 00:04:41,180 because it's just like Google Chrome, but more beautiful. 68 00:04:41,180 --> 00:04:44,620 I have my own minor gripes too. The back button and address bar 69 00:04:44,620 --> 00:04:48,420 are too small and insignificant relative to their importance to surfing. 70 00:04:48,420 --> 00:04:52,580 But these are small things that wouldn't prevent me from switching. 71 00:04:52,580 --> 00:04:56,500 Would you switch to ARC? I don't think so. 72 00:04:56,500 --> 00:05:00,660 But you would still stick with Safari? Yes. Wow. 73 00:05:00,660 --> 00:05:05,100 I'll try it out. I'm open to anything that will like make my life better. 74 00:05:05,100 --> 00:05:08,860 Yeah, I kind of, as of now, I have like fully switched to ARC. 75 00:05:08,860 --> 00:05:14,420 Yeah. Whoa, that's crazy. Yeah, it was really easy with all the importing 76 00:05:14,420 --> 00:05:19,300 that it allows from Chrome. It just brings everything over. You just had to make an account, 77 00:05:19,300 --> 00:05:22,940 sync everything up and it worked. What? Hold on a minute. 78 00:05:22,940 --> 00:05:27,900 I wouldn't mind it on the PC. I'm kind of useful. So if ARC was available on the PC, then would you switch? 79 00:05:27,900 --> 00:05:32,540 Yeah. The streamlined design like a Mac, but on the PC would be great. 80 00:05:32,540 --> 00:05:36,460 I'm still quite indifferent to switching browsers. I go where the wind takes me. 81 00:05:36,460 --> 00:05:40,380 I started using Safari full time because I cover Apple and that's the browser. 82 00:05:40,380 --> 00:05:45,020 Apple made some big updates to Safari last year with tab groups and their own take on profiles. 83 00:05:45,020 --> 00:05:47,980 But because Apple stuck in their flat design ways 84 00:05:48,020 --> 00:05:52,700 and they built these features in a well-established interface, I found it difficult to incorporate them 85 00:05:52,700 --> 00:05:57,020 into my surfing habits. I'm glad I'm giving ARC a try thanks to this video, 86 00:05:57,020 --> 00:06:01,260 but does this mean I'm committing to an ARC era? I think I might just do it, 87 00:06:01,260 --> 00:06:05,820 but there are two niggling problems, Google and the money. 88 00:06:05,820 --> 00:06:09,820 ARC is built on Chromium, the free open source version of Google Chrome 89 00:06:09,820 --> 00:06:12,900 available for developers to build their own browser on top of. 90 00:06:12,900 --> 00:06:16,540 That means they all have the same engine and have all the same base features available. 91 00:06:16,540 --> 00:06:22,100 Making it easy for Chromeers to switch over. Even Microsoft, who dominated the browser space 20 years ago 92 00:06:22,100 --> 00:06:26,060 with Internet Explorer, has switched to their Chromium based edge. 93 00:06:26,060 --> 00:06:30,060 Yet, it means that Google dominates in yet another layer of the web space 94 00:06:30,060 --> 00:06:33,660 and I'm a little tired of it. Chromium may be open sourced, 95 00:06:33,660 --> 00:06:37,660 but Google still has control over it. So even if you're not using Chrome, 96 00:06:37,660 --> 00:06:41,420 the web is still being optimized for it in other parts of Google's business. 97 00:06:41,420 --> 00:06:45,500 Like most other browsers, ARC is free. Free with Google means, 98 00:06:45,540 --> 00:06:51,060 monetized with their advertising and surveillance, but ARC makes a big deal about not monetizing your data. 99 00:06:51,060 --> 00:06:54,980 So they're still going to be looking for ways to earn money differently. 100 00:06:54,980 --> 00:06:58,460 One way to monetization is ARC for teams 101 00:06:58,460 --> 00:07:03,180 and saying, hey, if you're working at a company, how do we make it so the best way to work together 102 00:07:03,180 --> 00:07:06,300 is in ARC with ARC together. 103 00:07:06,300 --> 00:07:09,620 Kind of the way that Figma, Notion, Airtable, all these companies monetize. 104 00:07:09,620 --> 00:07:14,700 I mean, it's really great. You give it away to individuals for free forever and then you charge their companies. 105 00:07:14,700 --> 00:07:18,500 Exploring monetization strategies that break from the convention of us users 106 00:07:18,500 --> 00:07:24,540 being the product is laudable, but would you or I pay for ARC? 107 00:07:24,540 --> 00:07:28,540 Depends on the price. Thanks for browsing through this Mac Address. 108 00:07:28,540 --> 00:07:32,100 If you surf the web, give this video a like. And if you surf the waves, 109 00:07:32,100 --> 00:07:36,620 well then you might as well subscribe. I'm curious in the comments below what browser you currently use 110 00:07:36,620 --> 00:07:39,900 and what eras you've had in the past. And would you try ARC?