Want to experience what took Dia 6 months in just one click? f dia Chrome extension is pending review at the moment. But you can self depoly using the github!
Written by a 15-year-old dev tired of the hype
About a 10 min read
Before we talk about Dia we need to take a step back and look at The Browser Company and their previous browser, Arc. The Browser Company was founded in August of 2019 by Josh Miller. They promised to revolutionize the way we browse the web with a focus on speed, simplicity, and user control. Arc was their first attempt, most people loved it. But there was a problem, a massive one. Arc was only on MacOS - Now this was the setback. After almost a year of waiting on the waitlist I finally got access to the beta. I was stoked but even after this year of waiting what they shipped was a disappointment to say the least, some would say total garbage. It was slow, buggy, and lacked basic features that were in Mac's version of Arc. But I still wanted to give them a chance, so I waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally they announced Dia... After all that waiting for basic features on Windows they just decided to scrap it all and start over with a new browser called Dia. They promised it would be a rethinking of the browser, with a focus on AI integration and a new way to interact with tabs and windows. At this point I was sick of the Browser Company's bullshit and I just wanted a browser that worked. But I was so invested in Arc it was hard to make the switch but because of the broken browser I switched to Zen.
About a week after I switched to Zen I saw the first video announcing Dia, very vague and not very informative. It was just a pitch, no real features or anything. But I was still hopeful, maybe they would actually deliver this time. But after I took a step back I realized it's never going to be what we all imagined, I just never thought it would be this bad. The first video was titled "What have we been up to (CEO Update)" this had a big promise to live up to, but I let it be. After a month they posted another video that gave us a sneak peek at Dia, they showed a cursor that has AI integrated into it, a new way to interact with tabs and windows, and a new way to search the web. But it was still very vague and not very informative. After a month these prototypes looked promising so I forgot about it again. But after 6 months of waiting, they posted another video 7 days ago (on May 28th, 2025). This video somehow had fewer features than the video 6 months prior, yet it was still a fucking alpha. The cursor that had AI baked in was nowhere to be seen, only feature it had was an AI chat that could bring tabs in, THAT'S IT! Well this is where I got pissed off, and made f dia - to show the Browser Company is a shit show and their main feature could be replicated by a 15 year old who has a 3.0 GPA.
| Promised | Delivered |
|---|---|
| AI-powered cursor | ❌ Not included |
| Revolutionary tab management | ❌ Basic tab copying |
| New way to browse | ❌ Just another chat interface |
I wanted to give Dia a chance. I really did. But what made it hard wasn’t just the lack of features (Though this is the main problem) — it was the silence. Arc, which was actually a product people liked, started getting ignored. Updates slowed down even more and fewer features on Mac and still no features on Windows. And all we got from Dia was a vague pitch that turned into a half-baked alpha, Worst part is the features people loved about Arc weren't in Dia, they say they will add more features to come, but can we trust them. They never shipped any good features from Mac to Windows in Arc, are they just straight up lying or do they just suck as a business.
So I made that extension. And yeah, it only took a day to replicate the feature it took them 6 months to make.
Before we talk about f dia, I want to say I know building a stable, good feature takes time but 6 months is insane with them switching all their focus to Dia and away from Arc, but nonetheless here we go. The extension I built is called f dia. It integrates directly into Gemini’s UI, adds a button that feels native to the page, and opens a modal that shows all your current tabs — each with its title and favicon. You can select the ones you want, or even select all with a single click.
Once selected, it scrapes the content from each tab and injects it into Gemini’s input field — ready to use.
This wasn’t built with some complicated stack. No fancy frameworks. Just Chrome’s native extension tools: event listeners, DOM injection, and a modal that shows your open tabs.
The button appears right in Gemini’s action bar. When clicked, it shows a dark-themed overlay with your tabs. Pick a few, hit Add, and boom — the content is pasted directly into the AI chat.
If one person — a 15-year-old with a 3.0 GPA, at that — can build this in under 24 hours, what has The Browser Company been doing for six months?
We were told Dia would be a rethinking of the browser. But what we got was the digital equivalent of copying and pasting your tabs into a text box. That’s not innovation — that’s just UI polish pretending to be intelligence. I'm sick of companies pretending to have real innovation when all they do is add a wrapper around existing features. I know wrappers are basically everything nowadays but when you make it seem like you're reinventing the wheel then just adding a new coat of paint it gets old fast.
The most frustrating part? This could’ve just been a feature inside Arc.
The way Dia treats features like windows, tabs, and context feels like a step backward. Arc was about control and speed — Dia feels like it's about vibes and marketing. And in chasing that aesthetic, they’ve lost what made Arc special. The worst part is that they had a good thing going with Arc, but they threw it all away for a new project that’s just not delivering. Another big problem is what's stopping Google from adding this to their browser natively, they could do it better. What's stopping t3chat from making an extension and doing this? Nothing. This is a feature not a product. It’s not something that should be locked behind a beta or a new browser.
The Browser Company founded
Arc launches on MacOS
Windows version struggles
Dia announced with fewer features
@tabs or #tabsAlthough this is a protest project, I do find it useful. I will keep updating it and adding features as it's helping me learn a lot too! I know it’s not perfect, but it’s a start. And it’s a reminder that sometimes the best innovation comes from frustration and a desire to do better.
I’m not trying to shit on a company. I’m just frustrated. Frustrated that so much potential was wasted. Frustrated that users who believed in Arc are left watching a side project take over. Frustrated that the best feature Dia could offer took them six months — and I built it in one day. I think the Browser Company needs a new CEO and direction.
f dia shouldn't be Dia's only feature; people shouldn't be able to replicate your product so easily. If your product can be easily replicated, it's because it lacks true innovation or differentiation (Or it's just simple but I'm just talking about Dia here).
The future of the browser shouldn’t be locked behind betas, buzzwords, and feature delays.
Sometimes all it takes is a developer who’s tired of waiting and sick of how a company is run
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this! - Parker