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As the browser wars heat up, here are the hottest alternatives to Chrome and Safari in 2026
Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari currently dominate the web browser market, with Chrome holding a significant share due to the tech giant’s ongoing innovations, particularly in integrating generative AI into its search functionalities. However, users seeking alternatives will find a variety of browsers aiming to challenge these industry giants. To help navigate the competitive landscape of the browser wars, we’ve compiled an overview of some of the top alternative browsers available today. This includes browsers leveraging AI, open source browsers that promote customization and privacy, and “mindful browsers” — a new term that refers to browsers designed to enhance user well-being. Perplexity is the most recent startup in the space tolaunch an AI-powered web browser. CalledComet, the company’s new product acts as a chatbot-based search engine, and can perform actions like summarizing emails, browsing web pages, and performing tasks such as sending calendar invites. It’s currently only available to users with Perplexity’s $200/month Max plan, but there’s also a waitlist where people can sign up. The Browser Company, the startup behind the Arc browser,recently introducedDia, its AI-centric browser that looks similar to Google Chrome but with an AI chat tool. Currently available as aninvite-only beta, Dia is designed to help users navigate the web more easily. It’s able to look at every website that a user has visited and every website they’re logged into, enabling it to help you find information and perform tasks. For instance, Dia can provide information about the page a user is currently browsing, answer questions about a product, and summarize uploaded files. To get early access to Dia, users have to be an Arc member. Non-members can join the waitlist. Anotherrecent entryinto the AI agentic browser war is Opera’sNeon, which has contextual awareness and can do things like researching, shopping, and writing snippets of code. Notably, it can even perform tasks while the user is offline. Neon has yet to become available, but people can join the waitlist. It will be a subscription product; however, Opera hasn’t announced pricing yet. OpenAI recently launched its AI-powered web browser, calledAtlas. The browser allows users to ask ChatGPT about search results and browse websites within the chatbot instead of being directed to outside links. There’s also an “agent mode” for users to ask ChatGPT to complete tasks on their behalf. Atlas was first rumored to launch inJuly; however, it only became available on macOS in October. It’s expected to arrive on Windows, iOS, and Android devices soon. Backed by Y Combinator,Asideis an upcoming AI-first, browser-native automation platform built to autonomously complete tasks, fill out forms, and manage data on behalf of users. The company describes the experience simply: “Give it your passwords, browsing history, and browser context.” Unlike traditional automation tools that rely on integrations, Aside operates directly within the browser itself, allowing it to work across Gmail, Notion, Slack, Figma, and banking platforms. Users can sign up for the waitlist ahead of launch. Braveis among the more well-knownprivacy-first browsers, popular for its built-in ad and tracker blocking capabilities. It also has a gamified approach to browsing, rewarding users with its own cryptocurrency called Basic Attention Token (BAT). When users choose to opt in to view ads, supporting their favorite websites, they get a share of the ad revenue. Additional features include a VPN service,an AI assistant, anda video calling feature. DuckDuckGois anotherbrowserthat many people are probably already familiar with, thanks to its search engine by the same name. Launched in 2008, the company recently made significant investments in its browser to stay competitive byintroducing generative AI features, such as a chatbot. It alsoenhanced its scam blockerto detect a wider range of scams, including fake cryptocurrency exchanges, scareware tactics, and fraudulent e-commerce websites. In addition to blocking scams, DuckDuckGo prevents trackers and ads, and it doesn’t track user data, resulting in fewer pop-ups for users. Ladybird, led by GitHub co-founder and former CEO Chris Wanstrath, has an ambitious mission compared to other rivals: It aims to build an entirely new open source browser from scratch. This means it will not rely on code from existing browsers, a feat that has rarely been accomplished. Most alternative web browsers depend on the Chromium open source project maintained by Google, which is the most widely used base for many browsers. Like other privacy-focused browsers, Ladybird will offer features to minimize data collection, such as a built-in ad blocker and the ability to block third-party cookies. The browser has yet to be launched, with an alpha version scheduled for release in 2026 for early adopters, available on Linux and macOS. Vivaldiis a Chromium-basedbrowsercreated by one of the original developers of the Opera browser. Its biggest selling point is its customizable user interface, which allows users to change the appearance and enable or disable features. One unique feature is that the browser window changes color to match the website being viewed. Other key features include ad blocking, a password manager, no user data tracking, and productivity tools such as a calendar and notes. Operalaunchedthe Air browser in February, becoming one of the first mindfulness-themed browsers in the space. WhileOpera Airfunctions like a typical web browser, it includes unique features designed to support mental well-being. These features consist of break reminders and breathing exercises. Another feature, called “Boosts,” provides a selection of binaural beats to either help improve focus or relaxation. SigmaOSis a Mac-only browser featuring a workspace-style interface that emphasizes productivity. It displays tabs vertically, allowing users to treat them like a to-do list that can be marked as complete or snoozed for later. Users can create workspaces — essentially groups of tabs — to better organize different activities, such as separating work from entertainment. This Y Combinator-backed browser hasbeen aroundfor a few years now and has most recently begun introducing moreAI features,including the ability to summarize various elements of a web page, such as ratings, reviews, and prices. It also has anAI assistantthat can answer questions, translate text, and rewrite content. SigmaOS is free to use, but users who want more than three workspaces can subscribe to a plan for $8 per month, which provides unlimited workspaces. Zen Browseraims to create a “calmer internet” with its open source browser. Zen lets users organize tabs into Workspaces, and offers Split View to view two tabs side by side, among other productivity-focused features. Users can also enhance their browsing experience with community-made plug-ins and themes, such as a mod that makes the tab background transparent. This story has been updated after publication to include newly launched browsers.
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Bengaluru Built the GCC Story, but Hyderabad is Scaling Fast
India’s latest GCC boom is no longer just about Bengaluru. But that is still where the frenzy is impossible to ignore.
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Coders are refusing to work without AI — and that could come back to bite them
In 2026, you cannot pry AI coding tools out of developers’ vise grip, researchers have discovered. But while AI is undoubtedly helping coders produce code faster, it may not be producing better code, other researchers warn. And that could cause problems down the road for them. Specifically, in February 2026, respected AI research lab METRpublished a surprising revelation:Most developers won’t work, even on a limited number of tasks, without AI anymore. METR had hoped to provide an update to somegroundbreaking research publisheda few months earlier, in 2025, on AI coding productivity. In it, researchers measured how much time open source developers took to do tasks by hand versus with AI. While developers in that study reported that AI was making them more productive, they were shocked to learn it actually slowed them down. Sure, it generated code faster, but then they spent extra time finding and fixing errors, steering the AI and waiting on it to complete tasks. When METR set out to repeat the experiment to measure advances in AI and coder proficiency, they couldn’t. Devs weren’t willing to participate “because they do not wish to work without AI” even just for the study, the researchers confessed. Instead, METRpublished a surveyin May that allowed technical employees to self-report their AI productivity gains. Not surprisingly, they perceived that AI made them twice as valuable to their organizations. But recent headlines aboutthe wild expense of so-called tokenmaxxing, coupled with a smattering of recent research, make such self-perceptions dubious. Tokenmaxxing, or using the number of tokens a person uses as a proxy for productivity with AI, has been the trend of 2026 so far. And it may already be over. Amazon shut down its internal token-tracking leaderboard called Kirorank after employees were gaming it by using AI agents excessively, and running up costs, theFinancial Times reportedthis week. The employees proved that AI use does not automatically translate to increased productivity. Uber blew through its 2026 AI budget within the first four months of the year,The Informationreported. COO Andrew Macdonald recently said on a podcast that suchspending hadn’t led to a measurable increasein projects or productivity. AI-generated code also doesn’t necessarily reduce ongoing code maintenance needs and may even increase it, programmer and author James Shore elegantly argued ina blog postthat went viral on Hacker News. “You write code twice as quick now? Better hope you’ve halved your maintenance costs,” he wrote. “Otherwise, you’re screwed. You’re trading a temporary speed boost for permanent indenture.” There’s other evidence that AI can increase code maintenance woes. Aviral tweetfrom Aiswarya Sankar, founder and CEO of reliability engineering agent startup Entelligence AI, proclaims that companies are spending 44% of their tokens on bug fixes that their AI generated. Meanwhile, code-reviewing tool companyCodeRabbitsays it analyzed open source pull requests and found that AI produced 1.7x more problems than human code. Those are, admittedly, self-serving stats from those trying to sell AI code reviewing tools. Yet independent researchers have also found such issues. Researchers from the respected Singapore Management Universitypublished a report in Aprilwarning that “AI-generated code can introduce long-term maintenance costs into real software projects.” Given that programmers love their AI assistants, what’s the solution? Well, those who want to sell you AI coding agents say devs can just use AI coding agents to do the bone-wearying tasks of fixing code as fast as AI spits it out. That’s what Cognition founder and CEO Scott Wu —the maker of AI coding agent Devin —suggests. But even he admits that, while Devin can work independently, he’d currently rate its skill between a junior and mid-level programmer, depending on the task. This is not a hand-it-off and forget it solution. The SMU researchers suggest a more human approach. Programmers should know what tasks AI does and doesn’t do well as deeply as they know their favorite coding languages. They need strong quality assurance systems designed for AI and they are stuck with carefully reviewing the AI’s work as if it were a junior dev. Meanwhile, the researchers say (and Wu agrees), humans should still be doing the big-picture work like software architecture and security design.
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Does your CEO have AI psychosis? Aaron Levie thinks most of them do.
The people deciding that AI can replace your job are also the ones least likely to understand what your job truly involves, according to Box founder Aaron Levie, who pointed to this as an example of “AI psychosis.” Indeed,ClickUp recently cut 22% of its workforcefor AI agents, tech layoffs in 2026 are already nearly matching all of 2025, andDuckDuckGo installs are climbingfrom users who want Google to stop forcing AI into search and just give them links. On this episode of TechCrunch’sEquitypodcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into what happens when the AI-pilled and the AI-skeptical are both right at the same time, plus three deals worth knowing about and Waymo’s new robotaxi hitting the road. Listen to the full episode to hear: Subscribe to Equity onYouTube,Apple Podcasts,Overcast,Spotifyand all the casts. You also can follow Equity onXandThreads, at @EquityPod.
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