Manus, the viral AI “agent” platform from Chinese language startup Butterfly Impact, has had an unintended aspect impact: elevating the profile of one other AI software referred to as Browser Use.
Browser Use, which goals to make web sites extra accessible for agentic functions that carry out duties on a person’s behalf, has skilled explosive progress prior to now week. Day by day downloads greater than quintupled from round 5,000 on March 3 to twenty-eight,000 on March 10, co-creator Gregor Zunic informed TechCrunch.
“The previous few days have been actually wild,” Zunic mentioned by way of DM. “We’re the most important trending repository [on GitHub], bought a great deal of downloads [and] all that truly converts to huge utilization numbers.”
Why the uptick? A post about how Manus leverages Browser Use garnered over 2.4 hundreds of thousands views and lots of of reshares on X. Browser Use is one of the components Manus employs to execute numerous duties, like clicking via website menus and filling out types.
Zunic launched the eponymous firm behind Browser Use with Magnus Müller final 12 months out of ETH Zurich’s Pupil Venture Home accelerator. The pair thought net brokers — brokers that navigate web sites and net apps autonomously — have been going to be the “huge factor” in 2025.
“What began as informal brainstorming over a couple of lunches changed into a problem: let’s construct one thing small, throw it on Hacker Information, and see what occurs,” Zunic mentioned. “We put collectively an MVP in 4 days, launched it, and increase — primary. From there, it’s been an absolute rocket.”
Brower Use extracts a web site’s components — buttons, widgets, and so forth — to permit AI fashions to extra simply work together with them. The software can handle a number of browser tabs, arrange actions like saving recordsdata and performing database operations, and deal with mouse and keyboard inputs.
Browser Use the corporate expenses for managed plans, but in addition gives a free, self-hosted model of its software program. That’s the model that’s blown up within the days since Manus’ unveiling.
Zunic says he and Magnus are attempting to “promote a shovel” to builders chasing after the gold rush of net brokers.
“We needed to create a basis layer that everybody will construct browser brokers on,” Zunic mentioned. “In our minds, there shall be extra brokers on the net than people by the tip of the 12 months.”
Which may sound overly bullish, however a number of analysts predict that the broader marketplace for AI brokers will certainly develop enormously within the months to come back. According to Analysis and Markets, the sector will attain $42 billion in 2029. Deloitte anticipates that half of firms utilizing AI will deploy AI brokers by 2027.
Manus impact apart, Browser Use’s timing seems to have been fortuitous.