The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023
Arc's Boosts 2.0 lets anyone redesign any website — colors, fonts, and 'Zap' out elements
Arc's Boosts 2.0 turns the browser into a point-and-click editor for any website: restyle colors and fonts, or 'Zap' away parts you never wanted.
The Browser Company (Arc)
What it had to solve
Arc had shipped Boosts in July 2022, but the tool was aimed at developers and still felt like building an extension. The 2023 brief was to make 'editing the internet' something any user could do without knowing CSS or JavaScript.
How it works
In July 2022, The Browser Company shipped Boosts, a feature that let Arc users write CSS and JavaScript overlays that restyle any website. Spearheaded by Chrome co-creator Darin Fisher and Victoria Kirst, it was powerful but developer-oriented — closer to building a browser extension than to personalizing the web.
On May 24-25, 2023, Arc released Boosts 2.0 with the explicit goal of letting anyone 'edit the internet.' The new editor replaced code with a color wheel (plus brightness, contrast and saturation sliders), a font picker, page-size and text-case controls, and a 'Zap' tool that removes any element — a sidebar, a trending box, YouTube Shorts — by clicking it. A paintbrush icon in the URL bar toggles the Boost on and off per site.
Boosts became shareable: users could publish their customizations and install others' from a Boost Gallery, with one guardrail — Boosts containing JavaScript could not be shared, so bad actors could not sneak code onto other people's machines. Verge editor David Pierce used it to force dark modes, enlarge article text, remove YouTube Shorts and strip Amazon's sponsored rows from search results.
The feature reframed the browser as an editing surface rather than a viewing surface, and it anchored Arc's pitch that users — not site owners — should control how the web looks. It shipped with Arc 1.0's public launch in July 2023 and remained one of the browser's most distinctive features.
Why it lands
- It moved a developer tool to the mainstream by replacing code with a color wheel, a font picker and a click-to-remove gesture.
- The 'Zap' interaction made the value instantly visible: point at an element, click, and it is gone — no settings panel or tutorial required.
- Sharing through a gallery turned personal customizations into a community library, which made the feature discoverable and self-spreading.
- It made a philosophical point concrete: the browser should let users control their own experience of the web, not just consume the designer's default.
What it did
The revamp drew wide coverage (The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget) as 'editing the internet,' became a signature Arc feature shown in the company's launch films, and shipped to everyone when Arc 1.0 launched in July 2023.
What you can take
A developer-only power tool becomes a product when the interface disappears: a color wheel and click-to-remove gesture turned browser extensions into something a normal user calls their own.
Since then
Boosts became one of Arc's most-talked-about features and appeared in The Browser Company's launch films as proof of its 'browser as a platform' thesis. The company later deprecated Boost sharing, and as Arc pivoted to AI features (Arc Max, Arc Search) the feature faded from the spotlight, but the 2023 revamp established 'editing the internet' as the phrase and concept most associated with the browser.
Sources
- Arc's new Boosts feature lets you change the way any website looks
- Arc browser's new tool lets you remove some elements from a website
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