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

Longely little arc and peek are completely separate usecases

Vlad it's more minimal when comaring to the normal arc window

actually, this can be seen as "peek" but when you're not in the browser already. it offers a quick preview of the website you go to, and from there, you can choose to go to a full browser tab if you want

Longely

But im just thinking in both Peek and the above mentioned usecases the goal is to avoid creation of new tab/window when not needed or wanted. so perhaps they could work the same?

This is what I thought too.

In good UX design, we first try to understand what is the user trying to achieve, and then produce the best way to achieve that. Arc's implemnetation seems to be 'all over the place', but it seems to be addressing a valid pain point. So lets udnerstand what that is, and then suggest the best way to address it inside Orion.

@Vlad ok I'm glad someone else can see what im talking about

Longely OK I would appreciate someone processing all information we have so far on the issues and coming up with a clean, consise and minimal ask.

Brief Summary
Perhaps when a link is clicked any where on the mac, it can open in a smaller hovering window and the user can use a shortcut to decide if they want to open the link in a full page tab in the browser window.

Ok folks. We have 48 comments in this thread (but remarkably only 8 upvotes.)

We are willing to do something about this but we require somebody to condense and summarize what the MVP ask for this is.

What problem are we trying to solve and what the solution is.

@Vlad Let me have a go at this.

This feature is helpful if there are quick links that we need to refer to and do not wish to create an entirely new tab. The feature is two fold. There is Little Arc and Peek.

The key difference between both is that Little Arc is a floating window that opens in any screen / window as a link is clicked anywhere on the computer and we then have the option to open it into any of the existing spaces or close it once we are done with (cmd+w).

And Peek is a pop up window that opens up when a link is clicked on the Arc window (namely the Pinned Tabs) so that we can preview the link contents before deciding to make it a fresh tab within the currently live space in the side bar or just close it right away with (cmd+w)

In addition to this, there is a feature called ‘Air Traffic Control’, which can filter the clicked url and open them in the respective spaces or pop up windows. Example, I can say, all twitter.com links to open in a pop up window. and I can say, all github.com links to open in my Dev Space and so on.

Further Features:

1. Pop-up window: Users will be able to open a pop-up window that floats / hovers over any active screen / window and serves as an auxiliary / minimal browser window to the existing browser as a whole.
2. Multiple domains: Users can open links different domain names in the pop-up window to access different websites. And they can create custom routes as to where each domain opens (little arc, peek, active tabs, spaces, windows and so on)
3. Navigation: Users will be able to easily navigate between different domains within the same window. Or choose to open it in any of the existing spaces or ‘permanent’ windows.
4. Interaction: Users can interact with each website within the same window, including clicking links, filling out forms, and other basic interactions.
5. Resizing: Users will be able to resize the pop-up window to fit their screen.

I hope this MVP ask meets your needs. Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything else I can help with!

Hi @Vlad , The answers to your questions as follow.

• The two features can be combined into one popup. They both essentially serve the same purpose.
• They enable it in the settings. So all external links open in Little Arc and with a custom keyboard shortcut, they can open a Little Arc window in any screen that the mouse is in, even over fullscreen apps.
• Wanting to see the contents of a link before turning it into an entire tab that gets added to the workflow.
• Orion's native popup windows do not serve the same function as Little Arc, namely being able to open one in any window where the mouse is (even other full screen apps). I tried the solution you suggested. It doesn't suffice, but can be improved with the above features.

Vlad Between Peek and Little Arc, it seems to me you want Peek.

Yup, I think you're right.

Vlad Good proxy for Peek would be Orion's native web app window or a focus window.

I agree

Vlad It seems to me that you'd want the Peek window to open automatically open for a) clicked links that open a new tab in Pinned windows and b) clicked links in external apps

Correct

Vlad There should be a way to dock this mini window to main Orion window

Yup, a button and a keyboard shortcut Cmd+O

Vlad Finally I would image that not all people would want this behavior

Agreed

Vlad Is there an option in Arc for both these features, and what is the default?

The default is that Little Arc opens for all external app links, Peek opens for all clicked links in Pinned Tabs, It also acts as an opener for URL Schemes to open directly within an external app instead of opening a browser window (but one would have to agree to open that link in an external app the first time a schema link is clicked.

The options offered is that we could choose to enable or disable this in the settings.

joelchinta

The options offered is that we could choose to enable or disable this in the settings.

Please name and position these options in current Orion settings.

Longely Thanks for the input.

We'd like to see concens for the community about naming these options and their default value.

Everyone, please chime in.

Vlad

How would this be discoverable by new users as is not a standard macOS gesture?

In Arc its a setting now, The whole thing that you can open any link now this way is the big game changer to me, which wasnt the case previously.

Arc has a whole menu called Links in Prefferences, I think thats a bit extreme, we could just have it in Browsing as suggested further up

I also think since other Browsers are doing this now, discoverability will come naturally from people looking for this function

Can you clarify what do you mean by this?

Vlad As for the discoverability of shift-clicking a link to preview it, macOS already has a solution which is used pretty often in the menu bar.

Additionally, the preview appears to be a quick look view inside a popover. I don't think you can remove the arrow from a popover, and even if it was possible I don't think Orion should. The popover is a native macOS feature that is used elsewhere in the UI (like force touching a word pulls up the dictionary), and I don't think Orion should deviate from it. As for disabling/blurring the source web page, I think Orion shouldn't implement that. As a "preview", you should be able to open it without rendering your current web page inactive. If you quick look a file in finder, you can still interact with the finder folder.

In summary, the MVP of Orion Link Preview would include:

• WebKit's existing force touch preview
• Alternative activation methods
  • Right-clicking, which would show an option to "Open in Preview" along with "Open in New Tab" and other similar functions.
  • Shift clicking, which would automatically open the link in preview. Right click -> Open in Preview would have a little shift symbol akin to to menu bar items' shortcuts, to help with shift-clicking's discoverability.
• Acting more like an integrated part of the browser
  • Replace "Open with [default browser]" button with "Open in New Tab" and "Open in Current Tab"
  • Add a "Copy URL" option
  • Show either the web page's title or the full URL instead of just the website domain

I believe this is the best implementation of a macOS native and user friendly peek-like feature.

Update: It is possible to display just a shift symbol making use of a zero width space for the menu item's key equivalent. Discoverability settled

Important parts of the source code (swift):

let openInQuickViewItem = NSMenuItem()
openInQuickViewItem.title = "Open In Link Preview"
openInQuickViewItem.keyEquivalent = "​" // zero width space
openInQuickViewItem.keyEquivalentModifierMask = .shift

Thanks everyone for feedback.

Looks like the MVP of the ask would be to add the ability to open quick look with shift, via a setting in the Browsing section and the shift modifier in the menu (nice one!).

Note that Orion (like Safari) already uses shift + click modifier to add items to the reading list. This is a native feature and is useful to add a number of links quickly to the reading list (I use it on hacker news front page often).

As per changing the size, shape and controls of the Quick Look window itself I will leave @dino to comment about difficulty/time involment.

Roger, will wait for @dino to assess changing quick look window size and adding navigation inside it.

Vlad The existing Quick Look preview popup is handled by macOS which we can't modify, so instead we can create custom preview popup with all required functionalities.

dino

You could probably do a sheet overlay similar to Arc's, probably a bit smaller though. Its large enough that the website will look about right, and small enough that it doesn't look like a full navigation.

Example (from here)

We are always looking for most minimal viable ask.

So far to repeat my previous thoughts

"Looks like the MVP of the ask would be to add the ability to open quick look with shift, via a setting in the Browsing section and the shift modifier in the menu (nice one!)."

Other arbitrary things that Arc does like opening links in pinned windows (why?) etc would not fall under this.

The issue of shift click already usied for adding to the reading list remains:

"Note that Orion (like Safari) already uses shift + click modifier to add items to the reading list. This is a native feature and is useful to add a number of links quickly to the reading list (I use it on hacker news front page often)."

This also does not include "Little arc" because from what I've seen Little Arc already has so much browser chrome that Orion main browser window is already more minimal than it is (because default ARc is so crowded with controls) so there is no need to create something more 'minimal'. This is where we are with this, let us know if this needs to be changed/altered.

Before reading this thread, I never heard of Arc's Peek feature, but I use macOS force-touch URL quick look a lot. Only issues I have with system implementation are the lack of navigation inside and the weird size of the preview window, I even find myself scrolling page to position the link so it wouldn't shrink too much.

If Orion provides a better Quick Look / Preview / Peek / you name it experience for that exact scenario, opening a smaller version of a webview without leaving current tab, but makes it better by allowing to navigate inside and promote it to a full tab if needed, I'd be very happy with it.