Coming of page: Web browsers are changing to make room for the future

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. 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. 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 company Zoho launched Ulaa in May, and is pitching it as a “privacy-first web browser”. Google’s Chrome is already planning a similar feature, with its AI-powered Search Generative Experience due to be rolled out from August onward.