Manus, the viral AI “agent” platform from Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, has had an unintended facet impact: elevating the profile of one other AI device known as Browser Use.
Browser Use, which goals to make web sites extra accessible for agentic purposes that carry out duties on a person’s behalf, has skilled explosive progress prior to now week. Daily downloads greater than quintupled from round 5,000 on March 3 to twenty-eight,000 on March 10, co-creator Gregor Zunic instructed TechCrunch.
“The previous few days have been actually wild,” Zunic stated by way of DM. “We are the most important trending repository [on GitHub], received a great deal of downloads [and] all that really converts to massive utilization numbers.”
Why the uptick? A submit about how Manus leverages Browser Use garnered over 2.4 tens of millions views and lots of of reshares on X. Browser Use is among the elements Manus employs to execute numerous duties, like clicking via web site menus and filling out kinds.
Zunic launched the eponymous firm behind Browser Use with Magnus Müller final 12 months out of ETH Zurich’s Student Project House accelerator. The pair thought internet brokers — brokers that navigate web sites and internet apps autonomously — have been going to be the “massive factor” in 2025.
“What began as informal brainstorming over a couple of lunches was a problem: let’s construct one thing small, throw it on Hacker News, and see what occurs,” Zunic stated. “We put collectively an MVP in 4 days, launched it, and growth — primary. From there, it’s been an absolute rocket.”
Brower Use extracts an internet site’s parts — buttons, widgets, and so forth — to permit AI fashions to extra simply work together with them. The device can handle a number of browser tabs, arrange actions like saving information and performing database operations, and deal with mouse and keyboard inputs.
Browser Use the corporate expenses for managed plans, but additionally affords 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 try to “promote a shovel” to builders chasing after the gold rush of internet brokers.
“We needed to create a basis layer that everybody will construct browser brokers on,” Zunic stated. “In our minds, there will probably be extra brokers on the net than people by the tip of the 12 months.”
That would possibly sound overly bullish, however a number of analysts predict that the broader marketplace for AI brokers will certainly develop enormously within the months to return. According to Research 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.
