Coming of page: Web browsers are changing to make room for the future
New companies are breaking the mould — to make room for more, add AI functionality, enhance efficiency. Not just for phones but for fridges, TVs, smart cars too
For decades, internet browsers looked largely the same: an address bar at the top, large buttons for back and home, a row of bookmarks, and tabs.
Today’s most popular browsers still look much the same. But they are quietly making room for AI chatbots, online gaming, built-in VPNs (or virtual private networks), virtual desktops and tab stacks.
Then, there are the newer alternatives that don’t follow this template at all. They are moving things around to make more room for content (since most people are scrolling on a phone), and to help the user minimise clutter and maximise efficiency (since, let’s admit it, most of us have so many tabs open at this point, it is possible they will outlive us).
Before we look at the most dramatic changes in this space, here’s how the most dominant browsers currently stack up. Google’s Chrome has a market share of about 63.5%, according to the web analytics research firm StatCounter. It is still leading, but by a bit less than in 2020, when this figure stood at over 66%. Apple’s Safari is a distant second, at 19.95%, but is seeing this number rise. Microsoft’s Edge has 5.14%. And Opera, at 2.99%, is still ahead of Firefox’s 2.77%. What makes up the remaining 6% or so? These are the smaller, newer companies that are doing things differently.
There is a lot at stake for those that can recast the mould successfully. The global web browser market is expected to be worth nearly $1 trillion by 2032, up from $201 billion in 2022. Much of this growth is expected to be driven by the expanding internet-of-things (IoT) segment, and growing demand for artificial intelligence and virtual-reality functionality.
Some of the new browsers are already focusing on these needs of the future.
Norwegian software company Vivaldi has been sweeping clutter off the page since its launch in 2016, with a view to creating an optimal interface for smaller and smaller devices. A simple change in layout — tabs organised in groups and moved to one side; a main screen of widgets featuring the most-visited websites, and a range of customisable options for layouts and shortcuts — has already helped make it the go-to platform for smart cars.
Carmakers including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Bentley, Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and EV-maker Polestar, now use Vivaldi as their foundational software.
Elsewhere, The Browser Company’s Arc, released last year, has moved the address bar and tabs to the left of the screen, making more room for the vertical scroll.
Indian software-as-a-service (SAAS) company Zoho launched Ulaa in May, and is pitching it as a “privacy-first web browser”. It has a feature that generates a randomised browser ID each time the app is used, breaking a chain trackers and advertisers may have created to keep tabs on or respond to browsing habits and history.
SigmaOS, meanwhile, launched its Airis browser last year, pitching it as the platform for the ultra-productive. Airis offers in-built ChatGPT AI functionality, a host of notes and productivity features, and app-hosting options that let Spotify sit within it too.
Reloading
If Chrome and Safari seem relatively staid, part of the reason is that it is trickier for the Big Two to make dramatic changes. Any major layout modifications tend to provoke outrage (as happened when Safari first moved its search bar to the bottom of the screen).
Microsoft’s Edge would appear to have a bit of a double-edged advantage here. The company retained its brand recall amid the demise of Internet Explorer, and yet acquired a blank slate when it launched Edge in 2015, allowing it to redesign and rework the interface over the year, in relative peace.
It is already proving to be a trendsetter.
Currently, the Microsoft Bing chatbot sits in a sidebar and responds to search requests and general questions, can summarise a webpage, and can compose drafts based on notes, in a move that is expected to redefine how we conduct internet searches.
Google’s Chrome is already planning a similar feature, with its AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) due to be rolled out from August onward. Opera’s new Aria browser AI offers similar features too.
Across platforms, AI capability and privacy protection are likely to be key factors.
Mozilla’s Firefox is focusing on the latter, with an email extension called Relay that lets users generate random aliases to use in online forms (with communication redirected to their actual email ID), as a way to have less of their activity tracked and cross-referenced.
Opera is expected to add more third-party app integrations, including built-in VPNs in its sidebar.
Which of these browsers will get it just right and dominate the market? What will constitute domination, in a market spread across cars, fridges, TVs, computers and more? Refresh the page a year from now, and who can say what it will look like when it loads.
