Lewd

I like the idea of Brave. I tried out a very early build for a while, but it was obviously is its pretty early stages, and as such had rather little functionality. I'm definitely considering switching once it becomes more functional!

I'll check it out once it's further along

Haruspex wrote:

It boasts faster loading times, more privacy - by removing tracking and 'harmful advertising', on top of replacing standard ads with the option to either pay directly in bitcoin, or view 'approved' ads.
...
Discuss?

Oh boy, Brave. Here we go.

<rant>There was actually some legal dispute as to whether Brave can replace ads or not -- though blocking is completely fine. Weird to me. Anyways, it's a pretty dumb concept if you ask me. Nobody likes ads in the first place, and Brave recognizes this, but instead of fixing the issue, they replace ads with other ads. Get rid of the bullshit just to put more bullshit in its place.

What's more is that if an ad injects malware of any sort into your computer, it's probably exploiting the browser itself. And Brave is by no means bullet proof.

And let's be honest, Brave probably doesn't do anything more than send a "Do Not Track" request to the website, which 9 times out of 10, isn't respected anyways. You are right about one thing -- it merely boasts about loading times and more privacy. Not guarantees them.

Even if it is faster, it's by no means going to help in terms of privacy. It doesn't hide requests and responses from your internet service provider or even the government. The only thing it would be hiding, if it works at all, is data from ad services.</rant>

To be fair, it does have an option to just block ads altogether. But yeah, I get pretty much all you're saying.

I imagine that it might be able to perhaps somehow improve privacy by blocking or patching certain JavaScript functions, though that's purely a guess based on the fact that Tor users are heavily discouraged from using JS for that very reason - perhaps it wouldn't necessarily apply in the case of normal clearnet browsing.

Interesting!

Based on the above, would you say it's an outright, bold-faced scam or purely a misguided attempt, a case of 'heart in the right place' if my cliches hold right?

Haruspex wrote:

Interesting!

Based on the above, would you say it's an outright, bold-faced scam or purely a misguided attempt, a case of 'heart in the right place' if my cliches hold right?

Hard to say. Brave Software is a company after all. If you ask me it's more of a scam than anything, just trying to pull in money, and the reason I say that is because they put the option in their browser to pay to remove their ads. Seems like they're just saying what people want to hear.

Equinox wrote:

Haruspex wrote:

Interesting!

Based on the above, would you say it's an outright, bold-faced scam or purely a misguided attempt, a case of 'heart in the right place' if my cliches hold right?

Hard to say. Brave Software is a company after all. If you ask me it's more of a scam than anything, just trying to pull in money, and the reason I say that is because they put the option in their browser to pay to remove their ads. Seems like they're just saying what people want to hear.

Seems pretty wack, all things considered.

I think I'll stick to Chrome and Firefox, partially because of compatibility, and partially because of my bad habit of opening tens, dozens, hundreds of simultaneous tabs. Don't ask me how it happens; it just does.

I never understood why browsers use "built in ad blocker" as an amazing feature that's supposed to win you over; like, what's the benefit to using that instead of using chrome with it's plethora of extensions that already exist for more things than just blocking ads.

Whenever I see a new browser that boasts about ad blocking capabilities it just makes me treat it at the same level as browsers that are amateur projects on technology forums; like, sure it's cool but I'll never use it.

EDIT: Oh, and every time I see "browse safer", the browser comes bundled with some shit VPN.

Senpai wrote:

I never understood why browsers use "built in ad blocker" as an amazing feature that's supposed to win you over; like, what's the benefit to using that instead of using chrome with it's plethora of extensions that already exist for more things than just blocking ads.

Whenever I see a new browser that boasts about ad blocking capabilities it just makes me treat it at the same level as browsers that are amateur projects on technology forums; like, sure it's cool but I'll never use it.

EDIT: Oh, and every time I see "browse safer", the browser comes bundled with some shit VPN.

Clearly brave is different from all the marketing, I mean, it has to have super tor or something.

Senpai wrote:

I never understood why browsers use "built in ad blocker" as an amazing feature that's supposed to win you over; like, what's the benefit to using that instead of using chrome with it's plethora of extensions that already exist for more things than just blocking ads.

Whenever I see a new browser that boasts about ad blocking capabilities it just makes me treat it at the same level as browsers that are amateur projects on technology forums; like, sure it's cool but I'll never use it.

EDIT: Oh, and every time I see "browse safer", the browser comes bundled with some shit VPN.

People keep trying to make "TOR Browser Lite". It's simply not gonna happen.

IMO, new browsers oughta focus on one of two things if they're actually aiming for a decent market share: Speed, or an innovative and convenient interface. Chrome focused on the former, and thanks to the ubiquity of their parent company, they've got a firm grip on almost 25 percent of the market. Vivaldi tried to pursue the latter avenue, but turned out to be so inefficient and buggy during my time with it, that I didn't even bother using it for a full day.