Google’s Experimental Browser Redefines Web Apps
▼ Summary
– Google has launched an experimental browser called Disco, featuring a concept called GenTabs that uses AI to create custom, interactive apps from user prompts.
– Disco’s core function is to generate these “GenTabs”—information-rich, miniature web apps built by Gemini AI—based on a query and the content from related web tabs a user opens.
– The process is collaborative: the AI suggests information and builds an app, but the system is designed for users to actively open and add their own web tabs, which the GenTab then incorporates.
– Unlike many AI tools, Disco actively encourages users to open and interact with regular websites, creating a “virtuous cycle” where these tabs ground and improve the AI-generated content.
– The project is an experiment, and its creators are uncertain about its final form, including whether GenTabs should be permanent or ephemeral and how they might integrate with other tools.
Imagine a web browser that doesn’t just find information, but actively builds you a custom application to help you use it. That’s the core idea behind Google’s new experimental browser, Disco, and its companion feature, GenTabs. Launched as an experiment in Search Labs, this project aims to transform how we interact with the web by blending AI-powered generation with traditional browsing. Instead of presenting a static list of links, the system creates interactive, personalized tools on the fly based on your prompts and the web pages you explore.
This initiative began as an internal hackathon project, not as a strategic move to replace Chrome. Parisa Tabriz, who leads the Chrome team, clarifies that Disco isn’t meant to be a general-purpose browser. Its primary role is to explore a new paradigm: shifting users from passively managing tabs to actively creating “a very personalized, curated app that helps them do what they need, right now.” The technology leverages Google’s Gemini AI models, specifically the new Gemini 3’s capability to generate one-off interactive interfaces, turning simple queries into functional mini-apps.
To see it in action, consider a demonstration where a user plans a trip to Japan. After typing the query into Disco’s chat interface, the browser performs two key actions simultaneously. It opens several relevant website tabs in the background and offers to generate a dedicated trip planner app. Accepting the offer yields an interactive web application within minutes, complete with a map of marked attractions, a basic itinerary builder, and citations linking back to the source tabs. This collaborative loop is central to the experience. The AI-generated tab, or GenTab, doesn’t operate in a vacuum; it continuously updates and incorporates new information as the user opens additional tabs, creating a dynamic back-and-forth between human research and AI synthesis.
Other demos showcase the versatility of this approach. A query about human ankle anatomy resulted in both informational tabs and a rudimentary but functional interactive model of the foot. Planning a cross-country move generated a GenTab with moving tips, a packing calculator, and a price comparison table for moving companies. Each generated interface includes suggestions for tweaking its layout and a text box for further refinement, emphasizing its adaptable nature.
A significant design philosophy behind Disco is its commitment to the open web. Unlike many AI interfaces that act as walled gardens, Disco actively encourages users to open and engage with actual websites. Early testing revealed that when links were merely suggested in chat, users tended to keep chatting without exploring the sources. The team intentionally designed the system to incentivize opening regular tabs, creating what they call a “virtuous cycle.” The content from these open tabs provides the essential grounding data that the AI uses to build and update the GenTabs, making the web itself a foundational component of the app-creation process.
A fundamental question remains about the nature of these generated tools. What exactly is a GenTab? Is it a permanent, shareable web app with its own URL, or a temporary artifact that vanishes when closed? The team is actively exploring this. Tabriz describes two new primitives: the “project,” a container holding a chat and a collection of open web tabs, and the “generated tab,” which weaves all that information into a cohesive web app. Early user feedback indicates a desire for both permanence and ephemerality, with options to share GenTabs or export their data into established tools like Google Workspace apps.
The future of Disco and GenTabs is intentionally open-ended. The team is genuinely curious whether users will embrace this style of on-the-fly, vibe-coding app creation. They are considering if the concept fits better as a standalone project management tool, a feature within Chrome, or integrated into other products like Search or Docs. As an experiment, Disco stands out for its genuine attempt to merge AI capabilities with the interactive, resource-rich nature of the web browser. If it successfully unites these two worlds to create a superior tool, it might just carve out its own significant place alongside, or even within, the browsing experience we know today.
(Source: The Verge)
