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NOTE: See an enhanced version of this original post on my new Ghost website for WarrenWeb: Arc – Browse for Me. It has now been split into pages for Tidy Tabs, Instant Links, and Arc Sync.
I have migrated and enhanced much of my content from WordPress to Ghost, with links to remaining pages and posts that have not been processed yet.
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The Browser Company released this week’s update to Arc browser with several interesting features: Arc Sync, Tidy Tabs, and Instant Links. With these automatic tab groups, you can easily save them in Pinned Tabs, move selected folders to another Arc space, or copy all its tabs as Markdown links for an Obsidian note or map.
The new Arc Sync feature provides end-to-end encryption for your sidebar across your devices that is fast and doesn’t depend on iCloud. This cross-platform capability is a step towards Arc, anywhere (iCloud sync to be phased out soon).
Click “Turn On” in the Arc Max tab of Arc > Settings (Cmd + comma), just below the Sync Sidebar with iCloud setting.
Now you have a browser that tidies for you. It automatically makes sense of all those links that you collected while reading your email, feeds, or social media; or maybe you were just browsing interesting stuff for your efforts, or researching a topic that you’re working on. This is especially handy during the Add phase of your PKM workflow.
Previously, you would have clustered related tabs together and then selected multiple related tabs into a tab group and assigned a folder name. Now your browser helps you get this done with Arc Max AI. Then you might drag selected folders into your Pinned Tabs, maybe under a dated folder within Calendar, or perhaps move them to another space for further Relate work, perhaps for Efforts.
Press the broomstick 🧹 icon at the top of your Today Tabs in the sidebar, and let your Sidebar organize itself whenever you have over six Today tabs. Tidy Tabs only organizes Today Tabs, which appears below the + New Tab button. Your other tabs will not be affected. You can turn on Today Tabs by CMD + T > Settings > Max.
In my Web space I use for browsing, I had 33 Today tabs in my sidebar; Arc analyzed them with AI and grouped them into the following 6 folders.
For example, I had clicked some email links on Medium about Apple Vision Pro and Apple Watch, as well as another one on Pickle (pkl) that Apple introduced as a new open source programming language for configuration. Arc automatically grouped them together in a tab folder named Apple.
What if you could just tell your browser exactly what you wanted, and it understood you? Well, today you get a glimpse into the future of what browsing the web might look like.
Turn on the new Instant Links feature with Arc > Settings > Arc Max > Instant Links, and let Arc browse for you.
Try this:
You might enjoy last week’s announcement that shows “A browser that browses for you”: Meet Act II of Arc Browser – YouTube video (15 min).
Did you realize you can actually copy all tabs within a folder in the Arc sidebar Pinned Tabs to an Obsidian note as Markdown links? This is so powerful, convenient, and easy to do in a few simple steps.
Consider the following scenario, where you are browsing the web and find a bunch of interesting related links. Just follow these steps to collect and cluster these links so you can create a new Obsidian note or, even better, add a heading group in a Map of Content (MOC, or simply “Map”).
This means that you now easily add related web links in your notes and maps, just like other Obsidian note links within your Obsidian vault. For example, this might be something you currently do for other internal note Wiki links (double square-bracket) that you have selected in the Explorer or maybe even dragged from Search results based on a name, tag, or keyword.
If you have Arc set as your default browser, every time you click on any link in any app, such as Arc, Airmail (or Mail), OmniFocus (or Things), DEVONthink, Drafts, etc., it will open a new tab in the Arc browser in the Today Tabs section of your sidebar.
In traditional browsers, this would have resulted in tons of tabs that you would then have to save in Safari tab groups or a bookmark manager so you could revisit them, and then you can to copy/paste each individual URL to an Obsidian note and add the page title so it’s saved as a Markdown link.
When you have gathered multiple links during a browsing session, simply cluster them together in a group. You select multiple tabs in the Today Tabs section of your Arc sidebar, using right-click and select each one you want to be included.
Sometimes it might help to use drag & drop to move individual tabs next to other related ones, so it’s easier to move the group all at once.
If they are all together, you can just select the first and last ones in the collection rather than having to select each one individually using the Shift key. Choose the menu option to New folder with n items.
That will create a new folder in the Pinned Tabs section of your sidebar and allow you to assign a name to that new group folder, which will now contain all the selected links.
If you want to organize several folders together under a parent folder, the easiest way is move the folder is simply to drag it on top of the target parent folder.
Note: If you to Copy All Links as Markdown for a parent folder that contains sub-folders, it will copy all links across all these sub-folders with no identification of the sub-folders using headings. So it’s probably best that you copy only the sub-folders and assign headings, and work your way back up the directory tree.
I suggest inserting the folder name (wrapped with double-asterisk for bold font) before each folder’s list. It would be nice if Arc did this automatically, and I have submitted that suggestion to them hoping that they might had that capability.
You also have an option that enables you to send this folder to anyone, on any browser. Just select Share Folder… on the folder context menu, and click the Copy Link to Folder button. Note that anyone with this link can view your Folder.
Viewers won’t receive future updates and this permalink cannot be deleted. You have a checkbox called “Never show me this again” that you can check if you want to bypass this notice pop-up in the future and just copy the folder link. When you hover over the folder, a “share” icon appears to the right with only one option to click as Share Folder.
NOTE: See enhanced content on my new Ghost website for WarrenWeb: LYT Pipeline.
I have migrated and enhanced much of my content from WordPress to Ghost, with links to remaining pages and posts that have not been processed yet.
Please visit my new WarrenWeb website and consider subscribing to receive my newsletter.
I recently presented a Showcase on LYT Pipeline: Workflow with Arc Browser, Drafts and Obsidian Spaces for members of LYT Workshop 12. I wanted to share it more widely than just the LYT Community. It is now available: LYT Pipeline.
Recently, I added a series of pages to the Arc Browser section of my website under Technology > Apps. These cover tabs (links), notes, Easels. split views, folders, spaces, profiles, sidebar, extensions, and Arc Max (AI). These are currently available on macOS, which has a Mobile Companion that syncs with the desktop app via iCloud for use on the iPhone. They are also actively working on a Windows version.
There is a lot here, but I have tried to organize it for easy access, reading, and reference using smaller linked pages with embedded navigation. Once I started developing these notes, they kept growing and wanted to share what I learned while I continue further exploration in this direction.
Previously, I posted this stuff for the LYT Community using the Circle platform for members of the current LYT Workshop 12. I received positive and valuable feedback that encouraged me to share this more broadly. I’m also presenting a live Showcase session via Zoom for them to show them my current status with this effort.