The Browser Firm has mentioned repeatedly that it’s not eliminating the Arc browser because it strikes onto its new AI-centric Dia browser. However what the corporate additionally not going to do is develop new options for it. A new blog post from CEO Josh Miller explains why, and what occurs subsequent.
The Arc browser was a giant rethink of what browsers needs to be like, and it has devoted customers, together with yours actually. However a variety of the explanations for ceasing Arc’s growth that Miller offers within the weblog — like that it’s too sophisticated to go mainstream, that it was sluggish and unstable at instances (true!), or that The Browser Firm needs to recenter the expertise on AI — he additionally gave back in October.
Why not simply roll Dia into Arc? One massive factor Miller mentions is safety. Arc has had a minimum of one massive safety difficulty: a safety researcher discovered a vulnerability last year that The Browser Firm shortly patched, however which let attackers insert arbitrary code right into a customers’ browser session simply by figuring out their consumer ID. In keeping with Miller, The Browser Firm has now grown its safety engineering workforce from one particular person to 5. This focus is especially necessary, he writes, as AI brokers — AI programs that perform duties autonomously — turn out to be extra prevalent.
As for what this all means for Arc and its customers, Miller nonetheless insists that the browser gained’t go away. Arc will nonetheless get safety and bug fixes, and might be tweaked because the Chromium code it’s primarily based on is up to date. However he additionally says The Browser Firm isn’t going to open-source or promote Arc, as a result of along with Chromium, it’s constructed on a customized infrastructure that additionally underpins Dia. He says the corporate want to open the browser up sometime, however not till “it not places our workforce or shareholders in danger.”
The Browser Firm didn’t instantly reply when The Verge requested whether or not that very same larger safety workforce can be working to shore up the safety of Arc itself. We’ll replace as we study extra.