Veb
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Veb 0.24

Reference archive: this page documents the original Yab browser. Features, platforms and release dates here do not describe the current Veb prototype. Veb release plans →

Tabs open faster than in Chrome, Back and Forward at once, 200 tabs in half Chrome's memory, and userscripts and snippets kept in Veb.

Added

  • Userscripts

    A .user.js offers to keep it in Veb, beside boosts, and scripts move over from Tampermonkey.

  • Snippets

    Type ;name in any box on a page to paste a snippet, ⌘; lists them, and Veb offers to keep what you paste often.

  • Buttons on sites

    Agent buttons on GitHub, Linear, Google Calendar, Amazon and X, and Do It with Claude in Slack and Gmail.

  • Password managers

    A connected manager fills through its own menu, with no second sign-in and no second save prompt. Touch ID unlocks a manager once a session.

  • JSON viewer

    A link that answers with JSON opens as a tree.

  • Zoom and Slack calls

    Zoom calls and Slack huddles get the call window, as Meet calls do.

  • Extension search engines

    An extension's own search engine, such as ChatGPT search's, can be picked in Settings › Search.

  • DevTools search

    Elements finds nodes as Chrome does, also inside frames. Sources searches every file, with match case, regular expressions and the lines grouped by file.

  • Invite a Friend

    An Invite a Friend button beside the About menu in ⌘T, and at the top of the About menu.

  • Shortcuts sync

    Keyboard shortcuts changed on another Mac take effect at once.

Improved

  • Opening tabs

    A tab opened in front shows its page about twice as fast, around 50 ms instead of 100, now quicker than Chrome: the page draws first, the sidebar a moment after.

  • Back and Forward

    Back and Forward show the page as you left it at once, in about 20 ms instead of 60 to 100, and the menu bar and window title follow a moment later.

  • Sleeping tabs

    A tab that was asleep wakes about twice as fast, with or without extensions.

  • Many tabs

    With many tabs open, tabs of the same site share their memory, as in Chrome: 200 tabs take about 3.7 GB instead of 5.1, where Chrome takes about 7.6.

  • Hidden tabs

    Hidden tabs' timers slow down the longer they stay hidden, as in Safari, and their memory is tidied while you are away. With 200 tabs open, Veb at rest uses under half a percent of a core instead of 17%. Chats, mail and calls in hidden tabs keep working.

  • Extensions

    Heavy extension scripts (1Password, NordPass, MetaMask, Grammarly) wait for the page's first frame, so pages show sooner: with MetaMask a new tab shows in about 70 ms instead of 160, with ten extensions in 170 ms instead of 280, faster than Chrome with the same extensions.

  • Scrolling

    Scrolling a page takes less than half the work it did, and the sidebar with many tabs about a quarter less, so frames keep up on busy pages. A mouse wheel keeps scrolling what it started on.

  • Launch

    Veb starts sooner: the first page loads as soon as its window is up.

  • Tabs across the top

    A tab shows its icon, title and close button, as in Chrome, with every icon on whole points.

  • Tearing off a tab

    A tab pulled out of the window grows out of its row into the card, as in Arc.

  • Empty window

    An empty window shows what is behind it, blurred under the space's color, as in Arc.

  • Moving the window

    The sidebar's top band drags the window everywhere but its buttons, as in Arc.

  • Settings

    Settings › Tabs keeps four rows, as in Arc. What Veb sends now sits under Privacy, and what ⌘J opens under AI.

  • Updates

    Veb waits at least a day between updates.

Speed, measured

BeforeNowChrome
Open a tab102 ms48 ms61 ms
Open a tab, with an ad blocker106 ms46 ms105 ms
Back and Forward60–97 ms10–27 ms21–22 ms
Wake a sleeping tab105 ms52–64 ms
New tab, with MetaMask164 ms72 ms170 ms
New tab, with three password managers112 ms75 ms360 ms
New tab, with ten extensions280 ms170 ms800 ms
200 tabs at rest, memory5.1 GB3.7 GB7.6 GB
200 tabs at rest, CPU17% of a core0.4%4%

New experiments

  • Actions in the Field

    Words in ⌘T that read as something to do get a row on top that shows what Veb already knows, then does it, opens the site's own form filled in, or hands it to the agent. Read by this Mac's own model, or by Jev on your own OpenRouter key, added in Settings › AI › Models. Turn it on in Settings › Experimental.

    dark mode
    Switches to dark at once.
    pin linear
    Pins your Linear tab.
    meeting with caleb thursday at 3 about Q4 pricing
    Opens Google Calendar's event form with the title, the time and Caleb from your mail filled in, checked against your calendar.
    issue in fast: tab crashes in split view
    Opens a new issue in your fast repository on GitHub with that title.
    email hugo about the deck
    Opens Gmail's compose to Hugo, filled in.
    return the headphones on amazon
    Hands it to the agent as a task, with what Veb knows and the site.

Fixed

  • Crashes

    Fixed crashes in the Network table, in downloads, and in the share picker.

  • Picture in Picture

    A site's own Picture in Picture button and ⇧⌘P put the video in Veb's window again, with its controls; the page stays in its tab, and the window stays up when Veb is hidden.

  • Sign-in codes

    Boxes for a sign-in code no longer offer to fill a form, and the offer no longer hangs over the next page.

  • Folders

    Dropping a tab near another row's edge inserts it there; only its middle makes a folder.

  • Split View

    ⌘S beside a Split View always moves the sidebar and both halves together.

  • Videos

    A video opened as a page plays instead of failing to load.

  • Dark mode

    An empty window no longer flashes white in dark mode.

  • Chats

    Picking a chat from the sidebar's list no longer shows the chat before it.

  • New chat

    ⌘N in a chat's field starts a new chat instead of a new window.

  • Hidden sidebar

    A tab's card in the hidden sidebar hangs beside its row, not off the window's edge.

  • Dates

    Relative dates read in English on a Mac set to another language.

  • AdBlock

    AdBlock 6.49 updates again: a rule WebKit can't take no longer fails the whole update.

  • Mail

    Now reads dates in mail better and tells automatic alerts from people.