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Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

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Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#71

Post by p4bl0 »

hapless wrote: post #16

It sounds like their plan is to block all ads, then sell the new ad inventory created by all the blank space on pages. Why on earth would users want this browser?

My understanding is that the replacing ads do not use trackers and do not breach your privacy. They could also be less invasive visually I guess, that would be acceptable. However I would prefer the acceptable ads to support the content creator, which is not the case here. So, no reasons to make the switch from a classical adblocker for me either.

There are project which lets you curate where you accept ads and where you really want to block trackers: see https://myrealonlinechoices.inrialpes.fr/ (I actually submitted it to HN a few days ago but it did not catch: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10886400).

Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#72

Post by sp332 »

m52go wrote: post #5
rockdoe wrote: post #3

https://github.com/brave/browser-ios "Firefox for iOS" They forgot to remove the branding from their "new" browser.

It's not a mistake. Firefox is referenced throughout the documentation. Looks like Brave is built on top of it.

Mozilla is very protective of their trademark though. You're supposed to replace their branding with your own before distributing your modified code.

Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#73

Post by drzaiusapelord »

iza wrote: post #43

> With Brave, you can choose whether to see ads that respect your privacy or pay sites directly. Either way, you can feel good about helping fund content creators. How do they plan on doing that? Not like it hasn't been tried before. The problem is you can't collect money on someone's behalf without them opting in, and if it is opt-in only you get the chicken and the egg problem for adoption.

>or pay sites directly.

Call me crazy, but if I wanted to "pay the site" I'm using I'd just allow their ads. This company is really sleezy. Its playing the "replace their ads with ours" game and trying to make it sound like some wonderful moral position against advertising. People aren't this stupid. This thing isn't going to catch on.

Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#75

Post by coldpie »

rockdoe wrote: post #58
coldpie wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loathe Eich as a human being, and was very glad to see him ousted from a leadership position at Mozilla. However, this conversation is about a new company he created, where employees are free to make decisions about whether to join it fully cognizant of any personal issues Eich has with them, unlike the Mozilla position where a homophobe was placed in a position of power above existing employees. While it's fair to…

However, this conversation is about a new company he created, where employees are free to make decisions about whether to join it fully cognizant of any personal issues Eich has with them, unlike the Mozilla position where a homophobe was placed in a position of power above existing employees. Eich was a co-founder of Mozilla, as mentioned in most articles about Brave. So he had a leadership position all along and di…

Perhaps the homophobic donation stuff only gained focus because of the media attention around the CEO position, but then I think it's a case of "better late than never."

Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#76

Post by linksbro »

vladikoff wrote: post #54

From a quick glance: 1) Desktop browser is an electron app with ad tracking injected into your app via http://cdn.brave.com/ (via https://sonobi.com/welcome/index.php which promises "EFFECTIVELY PLAN AND SOURCE MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES WITH QUALITY AND VIEWABILITY FROM PREMIUM PUBLISHERS" 2) iOS browser is a fork of Firefox iOS - https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios 3) Android browser is a fork of https://play.googl…

Looks like Eich is on the Advisory Board of sonobi. [1]

[1] https://sonobi.com/welcome/company.php

Edit: Removed comments about the diversity of sonobi, as they're not really relevant to the discussion.

Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#77

Post by jowiar »

lsc wrote: post #51
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #27

Its by the same guy who donated to causes doing their best to make sure two people in love can't get married due to their gender. Sociopathy has many forms and its obvious to me that Eich is just an untrustworthy guy with a lot of bad ideas. Low-rent projects like these is just further evidence that you need a founder/leader you can trust. Its clear he's exhausted his social capital and at age 54 is far away from his…

Diversity, I think, is really important. Diversity of thought as well as all the other kinds of diversity. It's important to be able to work with people who come from different backgrounds, who have different beliefs. I see this on both sides (I see it more often on the left, but that's just because my filter bubble is a somewhat leftish one.. when I step out of that bubble, I see plenty examples of people on the rig…

There are a whole lot of issues I'm willing to accept "diversity of thought" on. But there's a line one crosses when they go from "I believe homosexuality is wrong, and therefore I will suppress any gay feelings I may have" to "I believe homosexuality is wrong, and thus I will attempt to make you into a second class citizen".

I don't have beef with Eich over his thoughts. But his actions were inhumane, and he hasn't acknowledged or apologized for that.

Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#79

Post by Klathmon »

rockdoe wrote: post #66
Klathmon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been saying for years that blockers just remove the good guys. What's the point in trying to make a safe, non-tracking, curated ad network when you will just be blocked by everyone anyway? All adblockers do its turn the game into a race to the bottom. Whoever can get the most invasive ads past the most blockers is the winner. Any company that isn't willing to play dirty will be left behind. Content creators won'…

I think you just described why Mozilla was pushing for Tracking Protection (blocking only "bad" ads) and didn't do Brave.

even widespread Tracking Protection isn't the answer IMO.

I personally want to be tracked on some things. I want ads that are relevant to me instead of ads that cater to the lowest common denominator. I want websites to be able to view my usage and cater to my wants/needs without me having to spend time trying to fill out surveys on how i use their service (and probably remember things wrong), I want automated recommendations for things that i might like without me having to spend hours curating my own content.

I don't want invasive 3rd parties getting ahold of my information, "push" advertising like cold-calls, emails, push notifications, or physical mail, and i don't want sensitive information being collected and shared.

Sadly nobody ever tries to make that distinction, it's always "everything" or "nothing".

Re: Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

#80

Post by smanuel »

Someone should make a browser that blocks "Ev­­­er­­­yb­­­od­­­y c­­­an e­­­ar­­­n xxx$+ da­­­il­­­y... Y­­­o­­­u c­­­an e­­­arn f­­­ro­­­m ..." spam comments. I think I've seen those mostly through the FB comments plugin. Obviously FB can't / doesn't want to fix that.
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