Open different domains in popup (similar to arc's peek)

Rafi

Arc browser released a feature called peek that opens up different domain in a popup window. It saves so much time and avoid mindless navigation. Unfortunately one might not be able to build such a feature using an extension because of Iframe restrictions. I wish Orion browser gets a similar feature.

eirk

would this only be for pinned tabs? what would the UI look like? how would u explain this to someone who doesn't use arc and this peek feature?

Rafi

Yes, arc browser does this only for pined tab. Let's say you are reading https://news.ycombinator.com/ which has lot of external links you may want to take a peek at links there but at the same time you don't want to get sucked into those external links. So for the pinned tabs in arc browser when you click on the link from external subdomains arc browser opens it in a popup to take a peek at those URLs (which you can expand if you want to). This does save a lot of time in mindless navigation it is quite popular feature in arc.

Vlad

Rafi Thanks. Can you post some screenshots/video? Why does it work only in pinned tabs?

sannidhyaroy

Vlad I'm not sure why they only limited it to pinned tabs but maybe they thought that it was unnecessary in case of normal tabs. A link opens up in Peek only if it's an external link, i.e, a link that redirects to some other domain or subdomain than the current site.

I've attached a screen-recording that demonstrates Peek in Arc. In the screen recording, I was in the GitHub Repo of Raycast Extensions and I tapped on the link that redirects to Raycast's official site. Since, it was an external link, it opened up the link in a Peek Window. They work automatically for external links in a site but you can open any link (including internal links) by pressing and holding Cmd + Shift while clicking on the link. Great way to not open another tab for something which you just need to take a quick look.
We can press the arrow button (Cmd + O) on the top right of a Peek window to open the content in a new tab or can close the Peek window by clicking on the cross button (Cmd + W) or by clicking anywhere outside the Peek Window.

Vlad

sannidhyaroy Thanks for taking time for the writeup.

The main thing we need to agree on is the specification for this ask.

From what Arc does I see two things that are problematic

Making this work only with pinned tabs seems arbitrary
It does not appear to be a good choice for default behavior. When I click links in my pinned Hacker News tab i ccertaily want them to open in new tabs for browsing later.

The only thing that makes sense is making the peek window optional (with some combination of keys) but this will suffer from discoverability issues (and will also likely not see much use).

Since Orion is a general purpose web browser (and Arc is more of a niche browser imposing its own browsing experience rules) we need to be careful about implementing features like this.

I am open minded here, do not get me wrong, just looking for universally useful minium set of features that we can do as a first step.

Waiting for feedback.

eirk

Arc is more of a niche browser imposing its own browsing experience rules

actually from what I can see everyone is praising arc for ingenuity and coming up with amazing features that are look good, are useful, and make sense

Vlad From what Arc does I see two things that are problematic
Making this work only with pinned tabs seems arbitrary
It does not appear to be a good choice for default behavior. When I click links in my pinned Hacker News tab i ccertaily want them to open in new tabs for browsing later.

imo, it makes a lot of sense. pinned tabs are tabs that you want to always stay there, eg, ur email.
then, if an email were to contain a link, u might want to just take a quick look at that website before returning back to ur email. then, a quick popup of the website would be more suitable rather than a new tab, which switches the context

now, I can see that this feature is quite similar to https://orionfeedback.org/d/4632-open-links-from-other-apps-in-popup-window/5

sannidhyaroy

Vlad

From what Arc does I see two things that are problematic:

Making this work only with pinned tabs seems arbitrary

It does not appear to be a good choice for default behavior. When I click links in my pinned Hacker News tab i certainly want them to open in new tabs for browsing later.

I agree with both points here. Orion shouldn’t limit this for pinned tabs only. And it should also give users a choice between enabling/disabling Peek. Maybe you could provide an option in Preferences to enable Peek and then make users select if they want to open an external link by default in Peek or only open a link in Peek while holding a specific key shortcut. Some users prefer Peek only for Pinned tabs as those tabs are something that you work on a daily basis but I don’t find a reason to limit it only to pinned tabs. That's why I said to let users choose in Preferences.

The only thing that makes sense is making the peek window optional (with some combination of keys) but this will suffer from discoverability issues (and will also likely not see much use).

As eirk stated, Arc is receiving lots of love for this feature and I believe it'd be useful once users start using for certain needs where they don’t need to open a seperate tab. As for the discoverability issues, I think when a new user opens an external link for the first time, Orion could show a suggestion that demonstrates Peek to them and letting them know there's such a feature and they can check out the options in Preferences to try it out.

Vlad

sannidhyaroy Is this related at all to ? https://orionfeedback.org/d/4632-open-links-from-other-apps-in-popup-window

Rafi

No that is used when you open links from other apps. This is for navigation within arc browser to different subdomains.

eirk

this is peek:

Vlad

Somebdoy should write what an MVP for this feature is, including all options etc.

Longely

This feature is awesome, would also love to have it.

I agree it obviously should not be default behavior when just clicking, but as i see it it shouldnt be more complicated then just holding down a simple key while clicking, and I think it should work for all links when doing so

Im not a keyboard expert so dont know what all keys are usually used for in combination with click

Longely

Oh yeah then it would be nice if you also had to option when right clicking

Vlad

Still looking for someone to specify the minimal ask for us.

Longely

Vlad

I suggest using Alt key as the modifier for opening everything (links/tabs/bookmarks) in "peek" instead of Arc's arbitrary behavior of only some things.

I asked in discord and nobody seems to use the Alt key function that downloads html link, and this behavior seems exclusive to Safari/Orion. No other browsers i have tested use alt for that. but im fine with any easy accessible hot key if a problem with Alt

Here is how it could look and work:

Clicking anything with Alt would open something similar to the new webapps in RC on top of the window. While whitening background page (like arc):

Clicking the background page would close the peek.

Function of buttons:

I think this is a great function coupled with searching (kagi) since you can stay on your results and check each individual link out.

The style of the buttons are inspired from how "Preview" look when doing pdfs in presentation. But how it looks in Arc or any other style is also fine with me.

sannidhyaroy

Longely I agree! I have never even once used the option key to download the html and personally I would like if the default function of the option key was replaced with peek which is way more useful. Usually people just right click and download the page when needed as this functionality is not used often.

Vlad

Longely

I suggest using Alt key as the modifier for opening everything (links/tabs/bookmarks) in "peek" instead of Arc's arbitrary behavior of only some things.

There is a lot of work to make the window happen and then most people would never even know it is there. How would this be discoverable?

Longely

Vlad

I think it should also be an option when right clicking a link, so thats one way. other then that i guess the same channels as when other new features are added, release notes, discord etc.. Like with the new webapps.

I personally think this is a amazing feature paired with searching, so for me it makes alot of sense to pair with Kagi.
But if you think its to much work, for to little benefit because of the lag of awareness, then I guess you can wait for more upvotes and/or for the feature to be adopted by other browsers so its a more standard thing.

Reason i mention searching is because i was reading someone asking this in Kagi discord:

If I go to a site through a Kagi search, then click the back button, does that count as another search? Or does it depend on browser setup? (edited)
I just don't know if it's cached or something

This kinda eliminates that fear since you never leave the site to check the information of the results.

eirk

Vlad it could be the default for webapps and pinned tabs, and in the right click menu, as @Longely said.

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