Ever since Mosaic, the first web browser introduced in 1993, browsers have included bookmarking features that let users quickly return to favorite sites. Today, bookmarks are even more important, especially on PCs and Macs, where the browser has become the most frequently used software. It serves as the gateway to email, news, entertainment, video calls, shopping, banking and even word processing, graphic design, tax preparation and much more.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, the CEO of enterprise software giant Atlassian, was one of the first users of the Arc browser. Over the last several years, he has been a prolific bug reporter and feature requester. Now he'll own the thing: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company, the New York-based startup that makes both Arc and the new AI-focused Dia browser. Atlassian is paying $610 million in cash for The Browser Company, and plans to run it as an independent entity.
Two recent product releases point to this trend: OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent and Perplexity's Comet browser. The ChatGPT Agent uses a basic browser to surf the web on behalf of users, while Comet takes it further by allowing language models to access logged-in sites and complete tasks for users. Both products have not yet achieved reliable performance and currently require expensive subscription access due to their high computing needs.