Brave Browser is a free open source browser from Brave Software Inc., released in 2016 and built on top of the Chromium web browser that Google’s Chrome is based on. Brave was created by JavaScript creator and Mozilla Project co-founder Brendan Eich, who is responsible for today’s Firefox.
The Brave browser, although more or less standard, continues to gain in popularity. It is a free browser that allows users to browse, display online content, run web applications, and, like current offerings, Brave remembers site authentication information.
The Brave browser was seen as the next Google Chrome and seems to be the solution to the problems seen in regular browsers. In this article, we’ll take a look at those claims and provide a general overview of what you can expect from this intriguing new browser.
Brave Browser Review: The Next Great Browser?
When you’re looking for a web browser focused on speed and security, the typical big names like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox just don’t fit. Google Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, but that’s because people usually don’t know about the best alternatives.
Brave Browser has an intuitive and user-friendly user interface with all the elements you would expect from an ideal browser. It displays statistics on blocked content on the home page, which can be very helpful for those looking to track things like this. You’ll also find interactive shortcuts to most visited pages, current times, photos, and a tracker for earning Brave Rewards.
Brave Reward System
Brave bills itself as a browser with faster loading times and better privacy protections than most of its competitors. A key feature of Brave is that it blocks ads by default. Something that initially caused quite a stir as many viewed it as a serious threat to content creators. However, this is not quite true.
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The truth is that some Brave browser users can even support content creators even more with the browser. Brave takes a unique approach to rewarding content creators. Rewards are accumulated through the Brave Ads network and donations provided by users. Publishers need to register online before claiming income and they will receive 55% of their replacement ad revenue.
Brave allows users to support their favorite websites with Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) cryptocurrency. The browser comes with a built-in downloadable wallet for your BAT with the ability to allocate a specific amount to any sites you want to support. Users can set a monthly budget that will be automatically allocated to frequently visited sites.
Anyone using the Brave browser can generate BAT income by browsing websites that are part of their publishers’ program. The user must first activate their BAT wallet and then agree to replace the standard advertising with Brave’s anonymous advertising. This user will be paid BAT equal to 15% of total income. The amount depends on how you spend your time in Brave.
Privacy and Security
Brave’s privacy-focused browser is much more secure than Chrome and Firefox. By default, it blocks not only ads, but also trackers and blocking scripts. Brave does its best to protect your computer, laptop or mobile phone from malware and other malicious scripts.
The basic browsing experience, while safer than the flagship browser it’s built on, is still a small step in the right direction. Brave, in an effort to make your browser even more secure, offers you the option to open a private window using the Onion Router (TOR).
This means that when you use this feature, your Internet browsing history will be hidden even from your ISP, and your IP address will be hidden from every site you visit. Brave will never collect, store, or sell any of your personal data, as your data is considered your personal property as specified in Brave’s terms of use.
It’s important to note that all Brave security features are enabled by default when you set your browser to use. This means there is no reason to edit anything if your main concern is security. However, if you need more information or are a computer guru and want to add a few things to the code to create your own version of Brave, the entire open source project can be found on Github
Default Ad Blocker
We already mentioned that the Brave browser automatically blocks ads. This means uBlock, AdBlocker +, and other ad blocking programs are not needed when using Brave. Automatic blocking protects your device from malware and extensive tracking by advertisers. By default, Brave only blocks third-party cookies. All essential cookies remain enabled, but Brave provides users with the option to deny or enable cookies on any particular website.
Brave’s ad tracking is very accurate as users are served ads that match your local data. All irrelevant ads are removed from view to avoid the irritation they usually cause. The data itself is limited to the device used while browsing as there are absolutely no third parties capable of storing data associated with Brave.
Brave does not only block ads that appear in search results. This means that you will be able to see AdWords ads in the results of Google or whatever search engine you choose to use. This is because ad blocking extensions cannot prevent search ads.
Improve browser privacy
The default ad blocker automatically provides a safer browsing experience. Since Brave does not have access to the user’s personally identifiable data, this data cannot be traced back to the user’s device. Enabling persistent HTTPS allows encryption to be used wherever it is available while browsing. Mobile Brave users will find that the fingerprint feature, which can be activated in Settings, prevents third parties from tracking your activity.
While it’s not as secure as the Tor browser compared to popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and even Edge, Brave’s browser runs smoother while maintaining a more secure approach to user privacy.
Faster Than Competition
The lack of third-party ads is due to the faster browsing speed that Brave is ahead of its competitors. With less content loaded on both the front and the back, transferring data on the internet has never been faster. However, this is only true for page load speed. When it comes to rendering images and videos, Chrome and Firefox still have a slight edge.
Brave Browser Features and Extensions
Since Brave is set up on the Chromium platform, it would be fair to assume that your Chrome extensions will still work in the browser. Your assumptions will be correct. Almost all Chrome extensions can be added through the Chrome Web Store for use in Brave. This makes it easier to import all of your favorite extensions that you already use when moving to a more user-friendly browser.
Twitter Tipping
One of the most recent additions to the Brave browser is the ability to tip users on Twitter. With one click, you can transfer income from your BAT wallet to your content creator account. In the lower right corner of the tweet, you will see a BAT icon with the word “TIP”.
Click the icon, select the amount in the new window and confirm.
The tip will tag you in a follow-up tweet letting the content creator know how much and where it came from.
Dark Mode
Dark mode comes standard on most platforms these days. The Brave browser is no different in this regard. The damage that white light can do to your eyes over time is more than enough reason to enable this mode.
- To enable it, go to brave: // settings /
- From the left menu, select Appearance.
- In the main window, you can choose between Dark, Light and Windows-like.
This particular feature is not available for Android and iOS at the time of this writing. The Brave team is working on it and it will probably be available sometime in 2020.
Verdict
So, will Brave be the next great browser? Highlights at a glance:
- Faster than other popular web browsers.
- You will save data on your mobile plan with fewer ads to show, which is more money in your pocket.
- Plus, you save time by not downloading ads.
- Earn BAT income just by browsing.
- Privacy is the focus.
This is just a short list of what Brave has to offer. This is the best? It’s not for us to tell. We suggest downloading and installing Brave so you can test the features and make the final decision for yourself.
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