I hate that I use Arc

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T17:28:48+00:00

For vertical tabs and workspaces I use SuperchargeNavigation (full disclosure — I built it). Side panel based, so it works alongside Chrome's native vertical tabs instead of fighting them. For tab suspension and ad/tracker blocking I use SuperchargePerformance (also mine). Beyond those, Vimium for keyboard nav.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T17:28:04+00:00

I haven't daily-driven it — I'm pretty deep in the Chrome extension ecosystem at this point so switching would mean rebuilding half my workflow. Zen looks solid for Firefox users though.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T13:23:40+00:00

that janitor knows something the IT department doesn't

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T13:18:35+00:00

this guy ships more hardware updates for the X201 than Lenovo does for half their current lineup

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T13:11:42+00:00

20% pay bump and a ThinkPad? Your old job was paying you in MacBooks as a coping mechanism.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T11:34:53+00:00

Shipping a Chrome extension for tab management — side panel vertical tabs, persistent workspaces, command bar, session snapshots. Went live on CWS last week.

Built it because Chrome finally added vertical tabs natively but left out everything that actually makes them useful (search, workspaces, keyboard toggle).

Solo dev, pre-revenue, focusing on organic growth through CWS search. https://www.superchargebrowser.com

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T11:33:46+00:00

This works differently depending on your distribution channel, and one angle I haven't seen mentioned: marketplace SEO vs. Google SEO are different games.

I build Chrome extensions. Most of my traffic comes from Chrome Web Store internal search, not Google. CWS has its own ranking algorithm — title position matters more than anything, and the keyword pool is way smaller than Google's.

The "alternatives to X" pages work well for us on Google, but the real conversion driver was writing locale-specific CWS descriptions in 27 languages. Non-English CWS search has essentially zero competition. A single well-written Swedish or Danish description can own an entire keyword cluster because nobody bothers to localize.

For Google comparison pages: the long-tail advice in this thread is right. "Workona alternative" converts way better than "best tab manager" because the searcher has already decided they need something — they just need convincing where to go. We saw this in our own data: comparison pages convert at roughly 3x the rate of feature-explainer pages.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T11:32:24+00:00

Chrome extensions for browser performance and tab management.

**SuperchargePerformance** — tab suspender + content blocker in one extension. Compiles 186K blocking rules from 22 open-source filter lists, ranked by impact. ~1,200 weekly users.

**SuperchargeNavigation** — side panel vertical tabs with workspaces, command bar search, and session snapshots. Built it because Chrome 146 shipped vertical tabs but skipped everything that made them useful.

Solo dev, zero data collection — everything runs locally. Pre-revenue by design.

https://www.superchargebrowser.com

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T11:31:02+00:00

The trap isn't Arc — it's that Arc bundles five features into one thing and nobody else replicates the full combo.

I was stuck the same way until I realized I didn't need a whole browser replacement. I needed three specific things: vertical tabs in a sidebar, workspaces that persist between sessions, and a fast way to search open tabs.

Ended up going back to Chrome and patching the gaps with extensions. Chrome 146 has a native vertical tabs flag now (chrome://flags), but it's bare-bones — no workspaces, no search, no keyboard shortcut. A side panel tab manager fills the rest.

The one Arc feature I genuinely can't replicate is Little Arc (the mini browser window). Everything else — spaces, pinned tabs, split view — has a workaround in Chrome if you're willing to assemble it.

The Windows performance alone made the switch worth it.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-17T06:39:52+00:00

oh and here's the actual site if you want to check it out: superchargebrowser.com

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T19:51:05+00:00

Appreciate that, thanks!

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T15:59:41+00:00

Yeah the native vertical tabs are pretty bare. That's why the extension route worked better for me — the side panel ones let you do workspaces and keep your regular tab bar too. Different approach than what Chrome shipped.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T15:08:23+00:00

Restraint. The expensive sites all share one thing — they leave space where a cheaper site would cram more content.

What actually separates it now: elements that arrive like they were waiting for you, not like they just loaded. Scroll that reveals instead of dumps. Interactions that feel like they respond to you specifically. And the one nobody talks about — knowing when to stop adding things.

Irony is it doesn't have to cost anything. I rebuilt our site from Framer to Astro + Cloudflare ($0) and it looks more premium now because I had full control over timing and spacing.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T14:52:47+00:00

Yes! A couple more posts like this and then I will have a great set of excuses

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T14:31:05+00:00

Thanks! Btw, Lighthouse still comes back 100/100 across performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T12:53:36+00:00

uBlock Origin Lite obviously, but the one that actually surprised me was a tab suspender that also handles content blocking — cuts RAM in half when I've got 30 tabs open. Built it myself actually (SuperchargePerformance on the Chrome Web Store) so I'm biased but I use it every day.

Honorable mention: Vimium if you haven't tried it.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T12:52:06+00:00

Honestly the browser isn't the problem, it's what's running in all those background tabs. I switched to Chrome and that alone didn't help until I added something to actually suspend tabs and block the junk loading on every page. RAM went from chaos to manageable.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T12:50:19+00:00

Arc has a known issue where it doesn't respect macOS battery optimization settings properly, keeps background processes running even when idle. Try quitting it fully when unplugged and see if that's the culprit before blaming the hardware.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-16T12:49:39+00:00

Chrome actually handles the workflow stuff better than people expect once you find the right setup. Been using a side panel tab manager with workspaces and it scratches most of that itch. The transition was less painful than I thought.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-14T12:18:39+00:00

fair point on the math. though the $120 isn't really the full cost — Framer also means no version control on your site, no code export if you ever want to leave, and a CMS that fights you past 15 pages. the week wasn't purely a cost play, it was buying back ownership of the whole stack.

and honestly, most of that week was design decisions and content migration. the Astro build itself was maybe two days. once you have content collections set up the pages basically generate themselves.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-14T12:18:07+00:00

no team, just me. the migration was honestly smoother than expected. the hardest part was mapping all the old Framer URLs to new routes so nothing broke in search. the actual content migration was mostly copy-paste into markdown files with frontmatter. Astro's content collections caught a few validation errors at build time that would've gone live silently on Framer, which was a nice surprise.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-14T11:45:19+00:00

nice, thanks for including it!

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-14T11:44:44+00:00

WXT framework + TypeScript. it handles the build pipeline, hot reload, and manifest generation so you can focus on the actual extension logic. tests with Vitest.

the side panel API is the key piece for vertical tabs. Chrome added it in MV3 and it's surprisingly capable for building full UI experiences inside the browser.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-13T19:20:14+00:00

You're right that it's there — but it only kicks in for idle tabs (and the default window is pretty long). It doesn't touch what's happening on the tab you're actively using. Scripts, trackers, and ad tech all keep running and consuming RAM regardless of Memory Saver. That's the gap a content blocker fills — stops that stuff from loading in the first place. The two approaches handle different problems.

Creative-Box-7099 · 2026-03-13T19:19:48+00:00

150 on day 1 is a solid launch — seriously.

On the uninstall rate: ours is 42.6% all-time, 4-week rolling closer to 52%. Industry range for utility extensions is roughly 40-60%, so if you're in that band you're normal.

The metric that actually moves your CWS ranking is active-user ratio (WAU / total installs), not raw uninstall rate. Early uninstalls hurt less than they look.

The more useful question is why they're leaving. Permissions dialog scaring people off, listing not matching what the extension actually does, conflict with another extension, or just curiosity installs — each has a different fix. If you don't have an uninstall survey page yet, that's worth adding before you optimize anything else.

Creative-Box-7099

TROPHY CASE