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A new browser from the Norwegian company Opera just launched today, and it wants you to stop stressing out so much. The free browser, called Opera Air, is billed as the first-ever mindful browser. While existing mindfulness apps like Calm and Headspace can help you take a break to reduce feelings of stress, Opera Air proposes a product that integrates mindfulness directly into working online. The browser comes with a sleek, minimal UI and built-in mindfulness toolslike breathing exercises and binaural beatsso users can code, type, or browse the web and get a brain boost simultaneously. Nikita Walia is a brand strategist at U.N.N.A.M.E.D, the creative partners behind Opera Air. According to Walia, who led the strategy behind the new browsers launch campaign, the team landed on the key insight that most people dont actually want to disconnect from technologyinstead, they want room to think clearly in a busy digital world. We noticed that there was a pretty binary relationship to technology as it’s presented by people’s opinions online, Walia says. Either you want to throw your phone in the ocean and disappear, or you’re super, super addicted to technology. We thought Opera could present a third way, where technology can be really supportive to your overall goals and your wellbeing. For the sizable portion of the workforce that relies on computers for their livelihoods, chucking your Macbook into the sea isnt exactly the solution to a better workday experience. As a remote journalist myself, ditching technology isnt a sustainable solution, and even tried-and-true mindfulness practices like meditation can feel difficult to incorporate into a busy schedule. So, I gave Opera Air a try to see if its worth abandoning Google Chrome once and for all. [Image: Opera] A browser for minimalists The first thing youll notice when you open Opera Air is that there arent many bells and whistlesand thats by design. According to Tomasz Stawarz, Opera Airs senior director of product, Opera Air is a purposefully pared-down version of Operas other browser options, a choice thats intended to combat the chaotic and overwhelming nature of the web. The browsers default settings include one simple Google search bar, an uplifting quote at the bottom of the screen, and a sidebar with five preloaded icons, including Operas AI, Aria, and the browsers two mindfulness tools. This sidebar can be updated to include any combination of apps, but Stawarz suggests that users get a feel for their most-used programs before updating it to keep the screen decluttered. [Image: Opera] Users can choose from a set of custom-designed CGI wallpapers by U.N.N.A.M.E.D and the creative studio Future Romance as their backdrop (I chose a green mountainscape). Opera Airs features and launch campaign both emphasize a visual bubble metaphor, which pulsates and bounces to mimic the tempo of relaxed breathing. And all of the browsers UI elements, including search bars, tabs, and icons, are rendered in what Stawarz calls a frosted glass effect, which is essentially a minimal, semi-transparent look. Weve kept distractions to a minimum by limiting the color palette and embracing clean, minimalistic design,” Stawarz says. [Image: Opera] As a loyal Chrome user, I found Opera Air quite easy to navigate. My main qualm with the browser itself is that, once youve racked up enough tabs, it becomes difficult to select one without inadvertently clicking the X and exiting out of ita minor annoyance that got pretty frustrating after about the tenth time it happened. Still, I appreciated the simplicity of the default settings and the browsers streamlined aesthetics. [Image: Opera] Putting Opera Air to the test The true test of Opera Air is in its two mindfulness features, called Boosts and Take a Break. I decided to give these tools a trial by fire by testing them out for the first time during a workday with several quick turn-around deadlines. The first feature, Boosts, uses something called binaural beats to help users achieve sensations ranging from Energized Focus to Deep Relaxation. Binaural beats are an auditory technique wherein two slightly different frequencies are played in each ear, causing the brain to generate its own perceived third frequency. According to a press release from Opera, This is known to influence brainwave activity, helping to promote relaxation, focus, or a meditative statealthough, it should be noted that scientists are still debating exactly how effective binaural beats actually are, and under what conditions. [Image: Opera] Currently, Opera Air comes with 19 Boosts, each of which is composed of three elements: background music, ambient noise (like bird sounds or waves), and binaural frequencies. The Boosts have been created by the Opera Air team with different effects in mind. Focused Calm, for example, includes a slower music track and comes with more prominent binaural beats. Energized Focus, on the other hand, features a more upbeat soundtrack and less noticeable beats. Users can browse the Boosts descriptions to select one thats right for their current task, and even customize them by adjusting the volumes of the three components of the beats. Both Boosts and “Take a Break” are easily accessible as icons in the browser’s sidebar, so it’s pretty simple to change your Boost or tweak its volume from whatever tab you’re working in. [Image: Opera] I frequently use binaural beats to get into a flow state while writing, so, predictably, I found myself better able to focus on my work while a Boost was playing. Still, Im not entirely sold on the utility of this tool, considering that thousands of similar compositions are just a few clicks away on YouTube. Opera Airs second mindfulness feature, Take a Break, is a bit more involved. This tool takes users to a variety of exercises, including guided breathing sessions, meditation, neck exercises, and a full-body scan, all designed to encourage a moment of relaxation. Each of the four categories includes several different session options, ranging from a three-minute destress breathing session to a 15-minute full body scan. During my workday trial, I was pleasantly surprised by a four-minute neck exercise, which gave me some much-need tension release after a few hours spent hunched over my laptop (though the program relies on tracking your facial movements, which I noticed could be somewhat finicky, especially for those with longer hair). Similarly, I observed a noticeable difference in my stress levels before and after a five-minute box breathing exercise. All of the sessions include voiceovers from a male or female narratoryou can toggle between Alex or Emmawhich made it easy to close my eyes and really commit to slowing down for a moment. Going into this test, I was concerned that I might be irritated by the browsers reminders to use Take a Break, but I actually found myself wishing it would badger me more. Opera Air lets you decide whether you want to be reminded to do your activities, and you can determine the frequency of reminders, ranging from every 45 to 180 minutes. When your time is up, the Take a Break icon on the browser sidebar will begin subtly flashing. Despite setting my reminder frequency to 45 minutes, I found that I often missed the flashing cue, and then ultimately decided to just skip the exercise and do it next time. Granted, theres only so much a browser can do to convince us to actually practice self-care, but I hope the next iteration of Opera Air will include an option for more aggressive notification. Do I think Opera Air is the answer to my work-induced stress? No. But could it help make staring at my screen for hours more manageable? Definitely.
Category:
E-Commerce
My mom used to always say, If you want something done, give it to a busy person. She was a very busy person who seemed to have endless energy and a knack for outperforming others in her real estate firm. While the origin of the quote isnt clear, the idea is that someone who juggles several projects effectively probably has systems in place for prioritization and efficiency. This makes sense. But there is a point when said busy person hits overload. Tossing them one more ball could cause the person to drop all of them. About two-thirds of workers feel empowered to decline extra work, according to a recent report from résumé builder Resume Now, yet 59% feel frequent burnout. Gen Z is the hardest hit, reporting the highest levels of stress as well as difficulty managing their workloads. A recent study from the résumé-building service LiveCareer found that 77% of employees are asked to take on extra work each week, 56% reluctantly agree due to pressure from managers or leadership, and 8% admit they dont even know how to say no. Why Is Extra Work Hard to Decline? Extra work can be hard to define, which is why its challenging to say no, according to Keith Spencer, Resume Nows career expert. Its essentially work that is outside the normal scope of your role, he says. Some people are perfectly okay with taking on extra work, because it can allow you to try new things and learn new skills and work with different people. Gaining that new experience can be beneficial. People often say yes because theyve developed a pattern of wanting to help others, says Jenn Gunsaullus, a sociologist and relationship expert. Many folks grew up believing that their main value is in giving and giving, she says. There are many positive things in that, but others can take advantage of it in the workplace. Shira Gill, author of LifeStyled: Your Guide to a More Organized & Intentional Life, agrees. Most of us are wired as people pleasers, and we don’t want to disappoint, she says. We also want to represent ourselves as somebody who’s capable of doing all of the things and rising to the occasion. People sometimes confuse saying no with failure, disappointment, and not rising to the occasion. Its typically the opposite. Get to the Root of Your ‘Yes Reflex’ To start saying no to extra work, you need to get clear on why youve been saying yes. Gunsaullus suggests asking yourself a series of questions, such as, What stories am I telling myself about why I need to say yes? Who am I by saying yes? Theres an underlying narrative that’s been trained into your brain throughout your lifetime, but its not necessarily factual, Gunsaullus explains. We need to pause and reflect on the story and where it came from, then do a little personal growth and work around those patterns. Gunsaullus says its important to get clear on the emotions you have attached to this narrative. Ask yourself, What emotions am I feeling? Am I scared? Am I anxious? Do I have shame, fear of disappointment or disappointing others? Next, Gunsaullus suggests trying to pinpoint your physical response. A question like Where do I feel a reaction inside of me? shifts an abstract feeling to tangible sensations you can address. Can you take some deep breaths? Can you pat yourself on the back for reflecting on this and bringing kindness to yourself? That’s a way of breaking the pattern in the moment by orienting to the sensations you’re feeling inside you, Gunsaullus says. Finally, Gunsaullus says you can start to regain your personal power by determining how you want to respond differently in the future. How can you respond in a way that you feel proud of yourself? Gunsaullus asks. How can you be strategic and productive for your big picture goals of workplace advancement? Saying No Resume Nows report found that 42% feel relieved after declining extra work, which means that 58% don’t. [Saying no] can make people feel guilty, says Spencer. Maybe you really respect your manager and now they have to take it on. Or you want to be a team player, and youre concerned about the perceptions people have of you. It comes down to finding that balance, setting some boundaries, and advocating for yourself to protect your mental well-being. If you’re noticing the early warning signs of burnout, such as chronic fatigue or feeling irritable or detached at work, have a conversation with your manager as soon as you can. You don’t want to sacrifice or jeopardize the quality of your work just to be able to deliver a larger quantity of work, Spencer says. Setting clear boundaries starts with defining the most important outcomes and the amount of time, energy, and output you need to accomplish those, says Gill, who says, Look at your time critically to assess if there is time and energy left for other smaller or less-meaningful tasks. We all have a slightly different capacity. Gill also suggests asking your boss for help reprioritizing your workload by saying something like My understanding was that this was the No. 1 priority. If I take on this new task or responsibility, I fear that it will stall or prevent this outcome from happening. Gill adds, Give the boss the onus of deciding by outlining very specifically what will happen if you take on this new task. Work does need to get done, so Gunsaullus recommends these three considerations. First, are these types of tasks being spread around? she says. Is there equality around it? Second, are you overwhelmed with your workload? Are you already having trouble keeping up with what you’re doing? And third, is there anything in what you’re being asked to do that would be beneficial to your career advancement? She notes, Be strategic. Its saying, I’ve done this the last three times and it’s taken me away from my workload and what I’m committed to doing here. Be very clear, factual, and logical. The Risk of Not Saying No If you seem o be the go-to person for extra work, especially tasks that wont further your career, its important to start to decline assignments. Folks [who consistently say yes] are some of the most loving, giving people, but they can get taken advantage of in the workplace and become resentful, says Gunsaullus. Other people seem to not respect them as much, because they always say yes. They get pigeonholed as the person who always does these things. Saying no is like building a muscle, Gunsaullus says, explaining, Its gaining comfort with discomfort in emotional, mental, social contexts, where we’re feeling triggered in some way and we have patterns, and then we have discomfort around trying something new. The more we train our brains and our neural networks to be able to be more comfortable with discomfort, the easier it becomes. The discomfort might never go away completely, but it’s not as overwhelming. Gill says creating a not-to-do list and a personal mission statement can help you stay on track. Put them on a Post-it note or index card near your computer or workspace. People often make long to-do lists, but they don’t make outcome or results lists. Instead of mindlessly doing all of these things, focus on achieving and finishing whats important, she says. When we take on too much, we end up failing at everything.
Category:
E-Commerce
Search today sure ain’t what it used to be. On the one hand, you’ve got the escalating sense that Google’s once-reliable results are stuck in a downward spiral. It’s a perception we’ve been seeing take shape for some time now, even before Google Search started pushing accuracy-challenged AI answers into its search engine and steering people away from first-party sources. On the other hand, you’ve got AI-powered info engines ranging from ChatGPT and Perplexity to Google’s own Gemini chatbot now browsing the web for you and offering up immediate (if occasionally also inaccurate) answers. For the first time, that’s raising pressing questions about the long-term fate of the conventional search experienceall while Google and other providers struggle to keep junky AI-generated info from clouding their results. It’s a rare moment when something that’s long felt like an unshakable part of our lives suddenly seems vulnerable, and the way we seek out info online is open to reassessment. Amid all of that, Kagia company with a minuscule fraction of Google’s resourcessees an opportunity to convince people to stop turning to Google for search, quit leaning on inconsistent AI answers for important information, and start seeking out a smarter way to find what they need without all the cascading compromises. Kagis founder insists it isn’t a “Google killer”and, quite critically, it was never meant to be. But two arenas’ worth of early adopters see it differently, including plenty of Redditors, Hacker News commenters, and even Apple oracle John Gruber, who recently declared Kagi “the best search engine in the world.” And the more you hear about this utopian vision for what the web could be, the easier it is to understand the enthusiasm. Red pill moment Vladimir Prelovac started sensing a shift in the online search arena as far back as 2018, long before the name ChatGPT had entered the common vernacular or most people thought Google might be in any way vulnerable to a serious search competitor. Prelovac had just sold his former company, a WordPress management platform called ManageWP, to GoDaddy and was raring for a fresh challenge. While the exact price of the acquisition was never made public, Prelovac had enough cash in his coffers to bootstrap a new startup, without any outside funding, and he knew exactly what problem he wanted to pursue. “I had my red pill moment,” Prelovac says, referring to the scene in The Matrix when Keanu Reeves’s character takes a red pill, unplugs from the simulation he’s been living in, and sees the world as it actually exists for the first time. “I realized Google is basically insulting my intelligence, and the [Google Search] product wasn’t being built for me. It was pretty eye-opening. (Kagi did eventually raise a small round of $670,000 in 2023 and then a second round of $1.9 million in 2024.) Prelovac says he increasingly saw signs that Google’s actual customers were the businesses paying to advertise on its search result pagesnot the people looking to those same pages for information. He grew disillusioned with what he describes as a deteriorating experience and a lack of exceptional alternatives. So he decided to do something about it. “I thought it was ridiculous that we didn’t have a product that’s actually serving the users, not the advertisers,” he says. “I quickly realized the only way to [fix that] is to create a paid subscription-based service, because that’s the only business model that would align incentives.” Prelovac set out to prove his theory. Within about a year, he had an early prototype of a new service called Kagia Japanese word that rhymes with “froggy” and means key, suggesting the way Prelovac hoped to unlock a friendlier, more user-centric web model. Now, seven years later, Kagi boasts 38,000 paying subscribers, a figure that continues to grow, with rates running from $5 to $25 per month. (Most people should probably pick the middle-of-the-road $10 “Professional” plan, which allows unlimited searches and access to some of the simpler AI features.) Those figures pale in comparison to the throngs of people who visit Google each day and the billions of dollars Google makes from its search product, of course. But in Prelovac’s mind, that’s precisely the pointand the key to Kagi’s future. Unlocking a smarter search journey The best way to describe Kagi is as a less cluttered, more capable, and more customizable version of what we’re all used to seeing from Google Searchonly without the ads, the shopping results, and other assorted distractions. Kagi sports a refreshingly clutter-free and customizable interface. You also won’t find artificial intelligene “answers” forced in your face above regular web results, though you can get to Kagi’s own version of the chatbot concept if you like. (More on that and how it differs from the typical AI chatbot experience in a moment.) Primarily, Kagi is about taking you to the first-party web info related to whatever you’re seeking and making that experience as effective, premium-feeling, and pleasant as possible. It really is a refreshing change, too, once you get past the inevitable initial adjustment and the occasional muscle-memory-jarring momentone that opens your eyes to the type of web experience that almost feels more aspirational than realistic in this day and age. And yet, here it is. “If the user is paying you as a search product company, then you’re incentivized to make search better and better,” Prelovac reasons. “Otherwise, they walk away with their wallet.” To that end, in addition to the lack of ads and sponsored elements within its results, Kagi empowers you to do things like block specific websites from your results, increase the weight of sites you like in results, and customize nearly everything about the interfaceranging from which widgets and types of results show up to all sorts of settings around the site’s appearance and behavior. Kagi continuously works to remind you that it’s your search experience, and you should be in control. It’s a lovely upgrade from the effort-requiring work-arounds we’ve all grown accustomed to pursuing for any manner of meaningful customization or unreliable-AI-answer avoiding in the standard search arena, and it’s something you really resent losing when you go back to Google or any other more conventional search service. You can customize practically everything about the way Kagi looks and functions. Kagi even allows you to create your own custom “lenses,” which are search filters that show you results only from specific sets of websites, making it easy to limit a search to something like academic sites, forums, or your own personal domains on demand and with virtually no ongoing effort. Kagis lenses are an interesting way to limit certain searches to specific sorts of sites. And all of that is still just scratching the surface of how Kagi works to reshape search, both inside and out. A revamped window to the web Even if you don’t customize a thing or exert much energy thinking about the interface, you’ll notice some significant differences in what Kagi’s like to use compared to the status quo. The service combines its custom web index with search results from “almost every other search engine in the world,” as Prelovac describes itwhich, rather ironically, suggests you’re actually seeing at least some Google results within Kagi. But Kagi puts all of that data through its own special blender before serving it up to youand, as you’d imagine, it includes assurances that your search data will never be saved or used for any manner of advertising. The aim is to create the perfect mix of high-quality results that actually answer what you’re after without making you want to gouge your eyes out. “We push down sites that have a lot of ads and trackers, because that usually correlates with low-quality content, and we push up results that have very little ads or no ads and tracking on them, which usually correlates with high-quality content and somebody writing because it’s their passion,” Prelovac says. Kagi’s index also brings in an added emphasis on what Prelovac calls the “noncommercial” or “small” webpersonal blogs, discussions, and other off-the-beaten-path sites that tend to get buried in results from Google as well as the newer breed of large language model chatbots. This atypical approach is apparent with practically every search you perform within Kagi. If I search for “best usb-c to 3.5mm adapter,” for instance, Google gives me a screen that’s heavy on ads and other sales-oriented offerings. Kagi, in contrast, focuses on Reddit threads and recommendations from lots of lesser-known sites that would never show up in a standard search setup. Googles results, left, compared to Kagis If I enter a more specific, black-and-white questionlike “Is the Galaxy S25 worth buying?Google gives me a bunch of YouTube videos followed by related queries, a block of news stories, and then a single Reddit thread and some more YouTube videos. Kagi serves up a simple summary of different opinions, with clear citations alongside each point, followed by articles at a variety of sites both big and small that seek to answer the inquiry. Kagi also offers a one-click “Quick Answer” option to get a summary of all the top results for any inquiry on the spot. Plus, within each individual result, it provides a handy “Summarize page” command that shows you the high points of any page’s contents right there, no extra clicks or browser tabs required. By and large, though, Kagi really does make its AI elements easy to avoid. The options are available if you want emsome tucked away into the service̻s $25-per-month “Ultimate” subscription. That plan gives you access to Kagi’s Gemini- and ChatGPT-like Assistant chatbot, which combines large language models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta, and other organizations together with Kagi’s own web results. The system keeps all of your data private and lets you see info from any of those sources with Kagi’s custom filtering in place, which Prelovac hopes will lead to more refined results than what you’d get directly from any of the associated chatbots. “AI is limited by what you feed into it,” Prelovac explains. “It all goes back to incentives.” The big question, then, is how many people are willing to cough up the cash to enjoy these enhancements. The search for sustainability Prelovac says Kagi is already profitable, achieving a level of success never experienced by the higher-profile Neeva, a paid search service launched by former Google executives in 2021 and shut down roughly two years later. In Prelovac’s view, the key differences between Neeva and his creation are the motivation and the metric for success. Neeva raised $77.5 million in funding, with investments from venture-capital bigwigs like Greylock and Sequoia. So despite amassing a pool of 2 million paying usersa number that dwarfs Kagi’s current base of paying membersit never managed to make enough money to be seen as sustainable. “It’s funny that for them, it’s a failure[and] for us, it’s a success,” Prelovac says. On that note, Prelovac deliberately doesn’t think of his service as attempting to be a “Google killer,” as I alluded to earlier. In his eyes, Kagi and Google don’t share the same customers, so there’s no way they could be competing with each other directlydespite the fact that they serve similar surface-level purposes. “Google’s customers are the advertisers. Ours are the users,” he says. “The source of money for Google and source of money for us comes from totally different market segments.” Kagi is also working to set itself apart by developing its own WebKit-based browser, Orion, which includes a smattering of privacy-minded additions while putting the Kagi search service front and center. It’s available only for macOS and iOS at the moment, which means I wasn’t able to use it, personally, as I’m more of a Windows and Android kind of guy. But Prelovac says it’ll make its way to other platforms eventually.Without Orion in the mix, getting other browsers to rely on Kagi for their native search functions can be a bit of an adventure. Kagi offers an extension that handles the setup for you, and if you’re using Safari, that’s the only choice you’ve got. With Chromium-based browsers and also Firefox, you can instead just make a few reasonably easy adjustments in your browser’s settings to accomplish the same feat.The same applies for most mobile browsersagain with the exception of Safari, which requires the use of the Kagi extensionor you can just download the native Kagi Android and iOS apps and start your searches there. The real challenge, then, is continuing to convince people to deal with those hurdles while also paying for something they’ve so long seen as a freebie. “We are going against one of the most entrenched habits in societythat search is somehow God-given and free, almost like a rightwhere in reality, it’s just a service provided by one of the wealthiest tech companies in the world,” Prelovac says. One stat he finds encouraging is that once people get in the door at Kagi, they tend to stick around at unusually high numbers. All Kagi subscriptions start with a 100-search free trial, and Prelovac says about 20% of people who start a trial continue on to a paid plan from there. Even just in the few weeks that I’ve been watching the service closely, I’ve seen its self-reported stats of paying members climb by around 1,000 peoplewhich is somewhere in the ballpark of 3% growth, at this scale. (Kagi has also grown internally, with 40 employees as of the start of 2025, up from 25 when Fast Company wrote about the company just over a year ago.) Still, convincing people to pony up $5 to $25 per month for something they’ve been trained to expect at no cost is a constant mountain to climb. “It’s easy to compete with cheap and bad [by offering] high-quality and expensive,” Prelovac says. “But there are very little analogies in the past where a company has tried to compete with free.” The real saving grace may be Kagi’s goal, which is less about stealing a significant share of Google’s users and more about simply finding enough interest to make itself sustainable long into the future. Speaking of that long-term view, Kagi’s next ambitions include releasing a stand-alone version of its Assistant AI chatbot later this year, launching more native apps across all desktop and mobile platforms after that, and eventually building up an entire integrated portfolio of cross-platform products that equip people to say so long to Big Tech in all sorts of areas beyond just search. But for now, it’s one day and one won-over user at a time. And as for the question of if and when a mass of internet citizens might join the movement and decide search is something worth paying forfor the moment, at least, that’s a question even Kagi can’t answer. Discover all sorts of off-the-beaten-path productivity treasures with my free Cool Tools newslettera single new inspiring discovery in your inbox every Wednesday!
Category:
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