{"id":9780,"date":"2025-03-13T05:43:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T05:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/browser-use-powers-manus-goes-viral\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T05:43:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T05:43:41","slug":"browser-use-powers-manus-goes-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/browser-use-powers-manus-goes-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"Browser Use Powers Manus, Goes Viral"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/p>\n<h1>Manus and the Rise of Browser Use<\/h1>\n<h2>Introduction<\/h2>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/03\/09\/manus-probably-isnt-chinas-second-deepseek-moment\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manus<\/a>, the AI \u201cagent\u201d platform developed by Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, has had an unforeseen consequence: it has significantly boosted the popularity of another AI tool called Browser Use.<\/p>\n<h2>Explosive Growth of Browser Use<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/browser-use.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Browser Use<\/a>, designed to enhance website accessibility for agentic applications that perform tasks on behalf of users, has experienced a remarkable surge in growth over the past week. Daily downloads have increased more than fivefold, from approximately 5,000 on March 3 to 28,000 on March 10, according to co-creator Gregor Zunic.<\/p>\n<h2>Reaction from the Co-creator<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe past few days have been really wild,\u201d Zunic stated via DM. \u201cWe are the biggest trending repository [on GitHub], received loads of downloads, and all that translates to significant usage numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Cause of the Uptick<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reason behind this surge can be attributed to <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jianxliao\/status\/1898964775809536121\" target=\"_blank\">a post about how Manus utilizes Browser Use<\/a>, which garnered over 2.4 million views and hundreds of reshares on X. Browser Use is <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jianxliao\/status\/1898964775809536121\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">a key component<\/a> Manus uses to execute various tasks, such as navigating site menus and filling out forms.<\/p>\n<h2>Background of Browser Use<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zunic launched the company behind Browser Use with Magnus M\u00fcller last year out of ETH Zurich\u2019s Student Project House accelerator. The pair believed web agents \u2014 agents that navigate websites and web apps autonomously \u2014 would be the \u201cbig thing\u201d in 2025.<\/p>\n<h2>Development of Browser Use<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat began as casual brainstorming over a few lunches turned into a challenge: Let\u2019s build something small, throw it on Hacker News, and see what happens,\u201d Zunic said. \u201cWe put together an MVP in four days, launched it, and boom \u2014 it reached number one. From there, it\u2019s been an absolute rocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Functionality of Browser Use<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Browser Use extracts a website\u2019s elements \u2014 such as buttons and widgets \u2014 to allow AI models to interact with them more easily. The tool can manage multiple browser tabs, set up actions like saving files and performing database operations, and handle mouse and keyboard inputs.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2368\" height=\"1646\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/398959783-242ade3e-15bc-41c2-988f-cbc5415a66aa.gif?w=680\" alt=\"Browser Use\" class=\"wp-image-2979520\" style=\"width:934px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"wp-element-caption__text\">A demo of Browser Use in action<\/span><span class=\"wp-block-image__credits\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong>Browser Use<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Business Model of Browser Use<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Browser Use, the company, offers managed plans for a fee but also provides a free, self-hosted version of its software. It&#8217;s the free version that has seen a significant spike in usage since Manus was unveiled.<\/p>\n<h2>Strategy and Predictions<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zunic says he and Magnus are trying to \u201csell a shovel\u201d to developers chasing after the gold rush of web agents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe aimed to create a foundation layer that everyone will build browser agents on,\u201d Zunic said. \u201cIn our minds, there will be more agents on the web than humans by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Market Predictions<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This prediction may seem overly optimistic, but several analysts foresee that the broader market for AI agents will indeed experience enormous growth in the coming months. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2024\/11\/11\/2978211\/0\/en\/AI-Agents-Research-Report-2024-2029-Market-to-Grow-by-42-Billion-Driven-by-Demand-for-Hyper-Personalized-Digital-Experiences-and-Expansion-of-AI-Powered-SaaS-Platforms.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">According<\/a> to Research and Markets, the sector is expected to reach $42 billion by 2029. Deloitte <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.deloitte.com\/us\/en\/insights\/industry\/technology\/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions\/2025\/autonomous-generative-ai-agents-still-under-development.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">anticipates<\/a> that half of the companies using AI will deploy AI agents by 2027.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Manus effect aside, Browser Use\u2019s timing appears to have been fortuitous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Updated 12:45 p.m. Pacific: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to \u201cBrowser Use\u201d as \u201cBrowser User\u201d in the headline. We regret the error.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/03\/12\/browser-use-one-of-the-tools-powering-manus-is-also-going-viral\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Source Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manus and the Rise of Browser Use Introduction Manus, the AI \u201cagent\u201d platform developed by Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, has had an unforeseen consequence: it has significantly boosted the popularity&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1284,3127,2907],"class_list":["post-9780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ai-agents","tag-browser-use","tag-manus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/browser.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}