Horse Browser is the browser for ADHD. I've updated the homepage to say that now. If you go look and give it a read, it actually makes a lot of sense. But I didn't want to do it, and if you'll indulge a bit of a rant, I'll explain why.
(´-ω-`)
The Browser That Fixes Everything
When I first built Horse Browser, I genuinely thought I had fixed a core issue from 1993 that laid at the root of all issues browsers faced today. I had fixed navigation itself, not just the interface, and I was convinced that Trails would become the dominant way everyone would browse the internet.
(・∀・)
For years, I held onto this belief. I thought once people experienced how Trails worked, they'd never want to go back to traditional browsers. I sure didn't. It felt completely new, not just the same old "address bar, back button, and tabs" in a purple jacket.
(￣ω￣)
But I called it a "research browser" as a strategic positioning move. Making the Trails system work with (almost) every website under the sun was going to take me several years of work, something nobody even seems to notice these days as being the primary challenge of making Horse Browser. (Good design is invisible!) The "research browser" label would allow me to safely improve the browser while avoiding comparisons to projects with millions in funding, and give me time to perfect the system before people expected it to replace their daily browser.
(＾▽＾)
However, right away, reactions to the Trails® system I created were mixed; to most it was a curiosity. To some, it was more of a hindrance than a help. And to a few, it allowed them to finally get things done, and these users had a near-maniacal love for Horse Browser that could be pretty intense.
(・・;)
But to most it was a curiosity. Even when they spent enough time with Trails® to see it really was a novel way to browse the internet, and not 'just Tree Style Tabs in a new jacket' it often didn't click.
(－‸ლ)
An example of this is when Niléane of MacStories reviewed it, "Horse Browser is unlike anything I've ever seen in this space" she said in her review. Here was a professional who'd given the system a proper review (unlike some of her commenters whom she'd gotten quite annoyed by, and made me lol,) but it still didn't click for her, why was that?
( ｡ •̀ ⤙ •́ ｡ )
I tried changing the copy, the pricing, the feature list. I endlessly built new features. But without understanding who was actually using Horse Browser daily, I was shooting in the dark.
(－‸ლ)
Finding Our Real Users
I relied on users themselves telling me how much they used Horse Browser. When I finally started simply logging how many times a licence check was made per licence, an entirely different picture emerged; those who'd been talking to me on the daily sometimes for months, insisting to be big fans, sometimes never used the product at all. And out of our top 100 users, I had only spoken to 4 when relying on users to reach out to me, instead of vice versa.
( ദ്ദി ˙ᗜ˙ )
With this new data, I finally knew who our most dedicated riders were, and sat down with a bunch of them for a video call. At the end of these often very fun and lengthy conversations, the question would come up as to why the conversation flowed so well... and every single time the answer was they had ADHD.
(◉_◉)
One of them even said, "Horse Browser works like my brain does. I can go off on a tangent, and when I come back, I know exactly what I was doing before."
(╥﹏╥)
That was the moment. I sat there thinking: oh, flippidy flamingo. I made a product for ADHD.
(_´︶`_)
Why I Didn't Want It to Be About ADHD
And that's the part I didn't want to accept. I've been diagnosed with ADHD for over thirty years. I'm not in denial about that. I just didn't want the product to be about ADHD. I didn't want me to be about it.
(－‸ლ)
Because I've spent my entire adult life hiding it. Every job I had, every internship, I got fired. Not because I was lazy or unreliable, but because I finished everything too fast. I'd do three or four days of work in one, then have nothing left. That annoyed people, especially managers. After those sprints, I'd crash. I needed sleep. Rest. Quiet.
(╯°□°）╯
So I learned to mask. I'd do the work on weekends, then spend the week trickling it out. I stopped volunteering answers in meetings. I learned to be visibly busy. I stopped being myself. Only when I went fully remote in my mid-twenties did things start working—I could deliver everything in bursts, then disappear to recover.
(´-﹏-`;)
When someone outed me on Twitter last year for having ADHD, I panicked. Not because it wasn't true, but because I didn't want people to know. People treat you weird. And then you get fired. And excluded. That was my whole twenties.
(҂◡_◡)
But people are different now. The response was surprisingly kind. Thoughtful. Supportive. The world isn't perfect, there are still weird assholes with weird agendas, but in general, being different is normal now. And that's kind of beautiful.
(o˘◡˘o)
Embracing the Truth
The people who love Horse Browser, the ones who stick around and use it every day, all have ADHD. They're the ones who say it's the only browser that makes their brain feel calm—the only one that doesn't punish the way they think.
(｡◕‿◕｡)
Horse Browser works for people with ADHD because I do too. And now I'm finally okay saying that out loud.
(_˘︶˘_)
So yeah, I updated the homepage. It says what it is now. Horse is the browser for special little boys and girls like me who want to get their special little life together. And I really hope it helps.
(ﾉ ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ\*:･ﾟ✧