Arc has been my jam for some time now. I find the browser to be a breath of fresh air in a world of too much of the same thing. While most browsers still struggle with tab management, Arc has made the task effortless and elegant.
At the same time, Arc offers a few other tools to help keep the madness of tabs at bay. One such feature is called Air Traffic Control. This is one of those features that, until you use it, you won’t understand just how useful it is.
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This feature makes it possible for you to control where URLs are placed. You can define a specific URL as always opened in a specific Space. Or, you can instruct Arc to open a certain domain in Little Arc. Since bumping into the Air Traffic Contol feature, I have found it to be an absolute must when it comes to helping keep my tabs organized. That’s saying something, given Arc already does an outstanding job of keeping tabs on my tabs.
Air Traffic Control just takes it to yet another level of awesome.
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Let me show you how it works.
How to use Air Traffic Control in Arc
What you’ll need: The only thing you’ll need for this is an installed and updated version of Arc browser on either MacOS or Windows (please, Browser Company, build a Linux version of Arc). I’ll demonstrate this using Arc version 1.5.8.1 on MacOS 14.6.1.
Open Arc browser and then open the Settings window (on MacOS, that’s Arc > Settings).
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In the Settings window, click the Links tab at the top, scroll to the bottom of the window, and tap/click Air Traffic Control.
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There are plenty of settings you can tweak here.
Jack WallenZDNET
By default, all clicked links will open in Little Arc. However, you can define new Routes, which is how Air Traffic Control directs your links. For example, you could define a route that instructs Arc to always open ZDNET.com in a specific Space or Little Arc. To do that, click New Route at the top of the Air Traffic Control window. In the resulting space, fill out the necessary information for the route. For example, you could define a route that contains zdnet.com to be opened in a Space named Work.
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A link can either be set as “contains” or “is equal to.”
Jack WallenZDNET
You can create as many routes as you need, just make sure to not create conflicting routes (such as one route to open ZDNET in the Work Space and one to open it in Little Arc).
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Once you’ve created the new route, keep creating until you’re satisfied that all your bases are covered. With that out of the way, close the Air Traffic Control pop-up and then close Settings. You should now be able to open that link and have it take the new route you defined. When the link opens in a specific Space, Arc will automatically take you to that Space, so you can view the new tab.
Air Traffic Control is one of the best tab management features I’ve seen, since the advent of Workspace (Opera and Safari) and Spaces (Arc). If you’re serious about keeping your tabs better managed, give Arc and Air Traffic Control a try… you’ll quickly find it to be a must-use feature.
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