Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
Dia is the new Arc. Or, rather, Dia is replacing Arc; it’s a totally new browser and way of thinking about browsing. Now, you can sign up to access it.
You see, The Browser Company — which announced Dia in December — realized it made browsing too complicated and decided to go back to the drawing board. However, this wasn’t about retooling Arc or simplifying it. No. The Browser company had something else in mind: AI.
Dia goes back to the basics — at least in terms of use. If you’ve used Chrome, you can use Dia. But Dia is very much in line with what The Browser Company attempted to do with its predecessor, as in a more modern-looking browser with more polish and better animations. But that’s not the big ticket item for Dia.
Also: Arc reinvented browsing for the better – and that was apparently the problem
The Browser Company’s new browser will have a sidebar dedicated solely to AI, which can be called up at any time. With the new AI chatbot, you can query about any of the tabs you currently have open (or even tabs from your browsing history).
Although I haven’t been able to test Dia yet (I’m on the wait list), from everything I’ve read, this will most likely behave similarly to Opera’s Aria AI feature — the biggest differences being it’ll use a different AI tool and the Dia sidebar will be dedicated solely to AI (where the Opera sidebar has several features and options).
I will say this: Opera’s Aria was the first AI tool I used, and I’ve always found it quite useful. I would imagine, given how much I liked Arc, that Dia will have a refinement that Chrome cannot touch. As well, Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, is all-in on AI and is even quick to remind that ChatGPT is the fastest-growing application in the internet’s long history.
You can watch a YouTube video from The Browser Company about ways to “hack” the new Dia browser. That video gives you a sneak peek at what it looks like and what it can do. In that video, you’ll see how users managed to use Dia for drafting, analyzing, and even personalization.
It seems the way Dia will work (accoring to this piece from The Verge) is that if you type a URL in the omnibox, the website for that URL will appear in a tab; if you type a search, the results will appear as usual; if you type what appears to be an AI query, it’ll bring up the AI assistant.
It looks like The Browser Company is bringing some serious smarts to the web browser, and I think Dia is going to be the big hit the company was hoping to have with Arc.
Also: 6 obscure browsers that are better than Chrome
I just hope they continue Arc’s aesthetic.
If you’re interested in signing up for the Dia beta program, fill out the necessary form and wait to be instructed on what to do next (which might take a while). Arc members, meanwhile, have early access, according to the Dia website.
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