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EnglishWhat is catonmat.net?
Updated
catonmat.net is the personal blog of Peteris Krumins, and its most recent pinned post is an announcement of a new user interface for Browserling, the browser-testing service he co-founded. If you arrived here looking for programming articles, tool write-ups, or the Browserling product announcement, that is what the site currently leads with. The page evidence available covers the Browserling UI post in detail, so this article focuses on what that post describes and what it tells you about the site.
What the current pinned post covers
The post is titled "A new user interface for Browserling!" and describes a redesigned product interface that puts all browsers, platforms, and features behind a single menu. It includes a quick browsing link that opens the same blog post inside the latest version of Chrome via Browserling:
browserling.com/chrome/110/catonmat.net/new-browserling-ui
That link is a concrete example of how the service is meant to be used: you pick a browser and version, point it at a URL, and the site loads there.
The new menu, feature by feature
The post splits the menu into two areas. The top part handles platform, browser, and target website selection. The bottom part collects the most-used features.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Display options | Zoom the browser in and out, and change resolution |
| Screen capture | Take screenshots and annotate them |
| Local testing | Open an SSH tunnel to localhost or a local network |
| On-screen keyboard | Type in English on non-English computers, and type on mobile devices |
| Share a browser | Send a quick link to the current browser and website |
| Send feedback | Submit feedback to the team |
Operating system and browser selection
This part of the menu lists all available platforms and browsers. The post's claim is that a click or two loads the browser version you need, rather than requiring you to navigate separate pages per platform.
URL navigation
You enter the address of the website you want to test, click the go button, and a browser opens with that site loaded. This is the core loop of the product: choose an environment, then choose a destination.
Display options
Two capabilities are described. Zooming helps on high-density displays — the post calls out 4K screens specifically. Changing resolution supports responsive testing, so you can see how a site renders at different screen sizes.
Capture screen
You select the region of the browser you want, and a screenshot of that region opens with editing tools: pen, rectangle, text annotation, and eraser. The post notes that more detail on this feature is coming in a follow-up article, and mentions additional abilities such as copying screenshots to the clipboard.
What this tells you about the site
Two things are worth separating.
catonmat.net is a blog. The post is written in the first person by the site's author, refers to "my team and I," and is framed as an announcement on his own site. That is consistent with a personal blog that also serves as a channel for product news.
Browserling is the product being announced. The features above — cross-browser testing, resolution switching, SSH tunneling to localhost, screenshot annotation — are testing-workflow features, not general browsing conveniences. If you need to check how a page behaves in a specific browser version, or on a screen size you do not have on hand, that is the use case the post is aimed at.
Practical notes before you try it
- The quick link in the post pins a specific browser version (Chrome 110). If you need a different version, use the operating system and browser selection instead of the link.
- Local testing requires an SSH tunnel to your localhost or local network. That is a setup step on your side, not something the menu does for you.
- The post does not state pricing, account requirements, or whether the new interface is available on every plan. Treat those as unconfirmed until you check the product itself.
- The author says a more detailed article on screen capture is planned, so if annotation is the feature you care about, the current post is a summary rather than full documentation.
Where to go next
If your goal is to read programming and tooling articles, browse the blog's archive rather than the pinned post. If your goal is to test a site across browsers, start from the operating system and browser selection in the new menu, then use URL navigation to load your target. The pinned post itself is the best current description of the interface, and the follow-up on screen capture is the piece to watch for if that feature matters to your workflow.