How Atlassian's $610 Million Ai Browser Acquisition Aims To Serve Knowledge Workers First

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Atlassian has acquired The Browser Company, shaper of Arc and Dia.
• The company's caller browser will beryllium designed for knowledge workers.
• Like Dia, it will leverage agentic AI to return action connected behalf of users.

The title to build nan adjacent procreation of web browsers is heating up.

Atlassian, nan package institution down Trello and Jira, announced connected Thursday that it has acquired The Browser Company, creator of nan Dia web browser. First unveiled successful June, Dia is a web browser that uses an AI supplier strategy to interact pinch users via earthy language, foretell their browsing goals without circumstantial prompting, and propulsion accusation from third-party apps. Dia is nan successor to Arc, different level created by The Browser Company.

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Through nan acquisition -- which reportedly costs $610 cardinal -- Atlassian intends to upgrade Dia into an AI-powered web browser designed specifically for knowledge workers. There will besides beryllium a attraction connected personalization: Whereas accepted web browsers person historically required users to navigate nan immense expanse of nan web connected their own, nan caller browser will beryllium built to understand nan discourse of a user's hunt history and actively thief them to much efficiently retrieve nan accusation they're looking for.

"It's clip for a browser that's really built for activity -- a browser that helps you do, not conscionable browse," Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes wrote successful a institution blog post. "Knowledge workers request a browser designed for their circumstantial needs, not 1 that's been built for everyone connected nan planet. That's what we will build pinch The Browser Company."

What to expect

In his blog post, Cannon-Brookes offered immoderate sneak peeks astatine his company's forthcoming web browser.

For 1 thing, it will toggle shape tabs from inert clutter astatine nan apical of nan web page into icons "enriched pinch context," according to nan blog post. In a short demo clip, for example, a Google Calendar tab is shown counting down nan minutes to a meeting.

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The browser will besides beryllium built "with AI skills and individual activity memory," Cannon-Brookes writes, seemingly suggesting that nan browser will beryllium capable to proactively return action connected behalf of users based connected their individual browsing history -- thing that Dia tin already do (with personification consent). Atlassian did not instantly respond to a petition for remark to elaborate connected really its caller browser will disagree from Dia successful this respect.

Atlassian will besides purpose to marketplace nan new, AI-powered Dia to businesses by emphasizing security, compliance, and top-down administrative control, according to Cannon-Brookes' post.

The emergence of nan AI browser

Traditional hunt engines for illustration Google and Bing person agelong leveraged algorithms to find which web contented gets surfaced successful consequence to users' queries. But nan ongoing emergence of generative AI has been reshaping immoderate of nan basal dynamics of really group prosecute pinch nan internet, thereby causing a monolithic displacement successful nan online hunt industry.

Google, for example, responded to nan viral occurrence of ChatGPT by fusing its ain ample connection exemplary into its hunt engine, truthful that users now spot an AI-generated summary astatine nan apical of each search, supra nan agelong database of web links. 

Also: The champion unafraid browsers for privacy: Expert tested

In October, OpenAI launched ChatGPT search, which lets users retrieve up-to-date web accusation via nan chatbot. Apple is reportedly readying to adhd AI features to Safari and is also rumored to beryllium successful talks to bargain Perplexity, nan AI-powered hunt startup that precocious launched its ain AI-powered web browser, Comet.

A communal thread among each these efforts is nan increasing belief that generative AI tin usher successful a caller hunt experience, 1 successful which users aren't near to their ain devices but tin activity pinch an automated sidekick to find amended accusation faster.