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Horse Browser š“ - my new research companion

Iāve been playing with a new browser for the past week called Horse Browser, and itās great! Letās discuss!
Table of Contents
Intro
Horse browser is a relatively new, paid browser that is centred around the idea of trails. These are hierarchical representations of your behaviour online: you click on webpages because youāre on the parent page, so each new click is nested under itās parent. Itās a fantastic way of representing you being an internet explorer, which is exactly what I try to do.

Essentially, these trails represent research rabbit holes, so Iām utterly convinced by the teamās claim that itās the browser for research.
My Experiences of Research in Browsers
Iāve always got projects going on. You know about one already with my history project, and RĆ©ka and I are actually cooking up something very exciting that we hope to share with you later this year. Both of these things involve deep research, fun rabbit holes, and lots of clicking.
Until last week, Arc was my research companion. Iād go about my research and end up with a big list of tabs stacked in the sidebar. Iād go through them one by one, trying to remember why I opened the page. For the past 6 weeks Iāve been heavily researching a lot of things and I canāt say the tab management was bringing me joy, but I wasnāt aware of alternatives.
So when RĆ©ka mentioned she was using Horse Browser for research, and was loving the experience, of course I had to try.
How Horse browser has made this so much better
What I just described above totally disappeared because of the trails. If Iām on a webpage and I click a link, itās nested beneath the open tab Iām reading. I can finish reading what Iām reading, open the sidebar (as I prefer to work with it closed) and see all the links Iāve been interested in, and then I can continue reading, continuing clicking, and continue researching. But I can see where Iāve been before.


I cannot tell you how grounding this is. Research rabbit holes and Wikipedia explorations are such good fun but itās so hard to remember what path you took to get to a certain page. Now, I can just look at the trails and I get the answer.
I enjoy this greatly, and frankly thatās all the convincing I need that this browser is worth the $99 (for lifetime access) to me. I used it constantly this past weekend and it was excellent.
Three considerations
No command bar
If youāre used to the Arc command bar like I am, and you close the sidebar whilst working, you might feel some friction in Horse Browser, as I have. This is because the side bar has to be open for you to search things.
I understand this in principle if itās about always having trails open, but Iād prefer to easily open that sidebar only when I need it. I could just get to the search bar with Cmd + L, type my search term, and press enter. I wouldnāt need to see the tab in the sidebar for this.
This isnāt a huge deal, but it is noticeable as a loyal command bar user.
No browser extensions
There are no browser extensions- and as someone who just wrote a post that is essentially born from the Raindrop browser extension, this briefly gave me cause for concern. It was only brief though because I remembered I had the Raycast extension for Raindrop. Problem solved.
But thereās also therefore no Zotero extension, and thereās no Save to Zotero x Raycast integration. Given itās not unusual on these research rabbit holes that I save academic ~things~ to read later, this made me think too.
But from this thinking came two realisations:
I should be treating academic reading in the same way I treat bookmarks - everything to Raindrop first.
Iām not in a rush, research time is play! Itāll feed into my work eventually through articles like these, but Iām not writing at the time of research, that comes after.
Been thinking a LOT about the āPKMā in PKM Beth.
3 ideas that I keep coming back to:
ā¢PKM as play
ā¢PKM as self care
ā¢PKM as a life practiceItās so much more than productivity or meeting notes.
ā Beth (@pkmbeth)
8:37 PM ā¢ Apr 12, 2024
The price
You cannot access the app without paying $99 for a lifetime license. But there is a 14 day refund period.
So this begs the question, why pay for a (young) browser when free ones exist?
If the browser solves a need the free ones donāt, or donāt do well
If you want to support the teams building them
If you can afford to spend $99 or if you have two weeks to test and ask for a refund
I canāt answer these questions for you but I can say that I chose to try it because
I could live without the Ā£87 it came to (the fact that itās a lifetime licence versus yearly was really interesting to me too).
A 14 day refund period is long enough to test something in my world and itās easy enough to ask for a refund via email.
Iāve paid for a browser before (Wavebox, which I (still) use for work) and it was immediately worth it because it solved a need
I really enjoy the teamās vibe and website. I trusted them immediately, and Iād like to support them as my money goes on apps and books these days (by choice!)
Summary
So do I recommend Horse browser? I really do. Itās fun and fresh and immediately grounding which is lovely. This is the perfect, playful environment for research. So for those of us who enjoy internet rabbit holes and note-taking more than trainers or meals out, it just might be worth checking it out š“
Is it for everyone? Absolutely not. But it doesnāt have to be. So if this isnāt you, then Iād still recommend Arc browser - another excellent browser, but in very different ways.
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