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Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

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Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is controversy about how Brave does stuff, and I agree there is some sketchy stuff they are doing I would be more open to trying/using brave if someone respectable packaged it. As of writing, not a single distro packages it. It would lower my barrier to entry a lot if it were packaged by debian/fedora/f-droid. It doesn't imply anything serious, just that it can be built from source and that it passed the distr…

If they care about both a fast development cycle and rapid adoption then spending time getting an official package for Debian/etc. makes no sense. > It doesn't imply anything serious, just that it can be built from source and that it passed the distro's basic diligence and guidelines. For a modern web browser it probably doesn't achieve the latter. Both Chromium and Firefox are too complex for Debian's meager backpor…

Firefox has an LTS release, but chromium doesn't. So distros just ship the update every month whenever chromium is tagged. In practice, it follows chrome's release cycle very closely. Since brave is based on chromium, I don't see why this model can't work for brave given that distos are able to build and ship chromium already. (Android is a more complicated story )

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#92

I'm impressed with Brave. I've started using it as my primary browser (after a couple false starts a year or so ago) and it has all the best of Chrome without the worst. There is controversy about how Brave does stuff, and I agree there is some sketchy stuff they are doing (replacing ads with their own). I'm glad they are giving us a choice, though, and exploring different options for sites being able to makes some m…

Edge is better.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#93
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They replace other ad network ads with their own ~ads~ crypto currency . They monetize the content of others and don't tell them. If you have a youtube channel, they will swap out ads and collect the ad revenue without telling the channel that they're doing so. I'm not particularly impressed with their business. In fact I'm pretty disgusted with it.

None of what you said is true. I'm puzzled by the constant lies and FUD spread here against Brave. What exactly is the agenda?

The reason that Brave doesn’t get a great rap around here is because it trips the sketchy detector. They make a marketing image of themselves as the protectors of privacy and whatnot and then the browser includes (or included) a lot of features that seem to go contrary to the stated mission.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#94

I'm impressed with Brave. I've started using it as my primary browser (after a couple false starts a year or so ago) and it has all the best of Chrome without the worst. There is controversy about how Brave does stuff, and I agree there is some sketchy stuff they are doing (replacing ads with their own). I'm glad they are giving us a choice, though, and exploring different options for sites being able to makes some m…

Switched from Firefox to Brave in the last year across devices and not looking back (though I do miss containers!).

Blocking ads and trackers by default is pretty much essential in 2019.

The myth about ad replacement doesn't seem to want to die though!

There is no ad replacement, though the roadmap says at some time in the future publishers who opt-in will have the option to have their ad-slots filled by Brave's privacy-respecting approach.

For now I think the only ad trials running are pop-up notifications if users opt-in, and that's only in a few markets at this stage.

Not something I plan to opt-in to, but looking forward to the Github / Reddit / Twitter tipping and integrated crypto wallet.

That's all rolling through in the next few months.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#95
post #40
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They replace other ad network ads with their own ~ads~ crypto currency . They monetize the content of others and don't tell them. If you have a youtube channel, they will swap out ads and collect the ad revenue without telling the channel that they're doing so. I'm not particularly impressed with their business. In fact I'm pretty disgusted with it.

See https://brave.com/faq/#unclaimed-funds for a description of their current and past policy. Currently: "If a publisher has not verified ownership, then a user’s contributions will be held in reserve inside the browser for 90 days. The browser routinely updates an internal list of all verified publishers to determine whether a property can receive contributions. At the end of the 90 day period, any contributions ma…

That's still terrible. If I'm a Youtube content creator who doesn't want anything to do with Brave, they're still going to remove the ads that I want on my videos to monetize my content, and hold any of the BAT that Brave users contribute to me hostage.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#96

Alternate title: Until recently Brave was orders of magnitude slower than other blockers.

I've been using brave for a few months and I never noticed any difference in its ad blocking performance vs Chrome with AdBlock. I actually perceived it as faster, since most AdBlocking plugins on chrome actually let some ads through (ads that pay the plugin authors i guess).

In what situation would this "orders of magnitude slower" actually manifest itself as a perceptable delay?

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried it recently? It has gotten a lot faster, so much so that some people say it's faster than Chrome in many cases. Personally, I find it more than adequate, and I agree with their mission a lot more than the other browser vendors.

It's been years people suggest the same "have you tried recently", but it doesn't come even close to the snappiness of any chromium based browser when I use it.

Have you tried using it recently? The quantum rewrite they released last year is incomparable to the previous releases. I use FF at home and Chrome at work and I can tell you that there is no noticeable difference in performance. The only time you'll notice the difference is when you use google apps that are written specifically for Chrome, but I personally prefer to avoid trusting the biggest adtech company in the world with my personal data. Plus, FF supports vertical tabs, Chrome doesn't.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#98
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except they don't. See above.

Well, that's good! Might give Brave a spin then. Just curious, what exact sentence(s) from the above links to the Brave website do you see contradicting this claim about "shadow wallets"? (if that's the correct wording) When I read something like this, it almost sound like they're making wallets (without necessarily asking beforehand): > If you own a website, or even just a blog or other sub-domain on a hosting site,…

Yes, they created wallets without asking beforehand, replaced the ads you monetize your site with with their own BAT system, and held funds hostage unless you buy into their system.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Install one of the many chromium extensions that block/obfuscate such tracking.

Sadly not an option on iOS, which is the reason for using Brave in the first place.

Ad blockers have existed on iOS for years.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wipr/id1030595027

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#100
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of ad revenue goes to the site, not to Brave[1]. The user gets a cut for having to see the ad, and Brave gets a cut as well. But even if you're right, why is it unethical for me to install software on my own computer to render websites differently than the creator intended? For example, by removing ads? Or replacing ads with different ads? Or rendering all ads upside down? [1] https://brave.com/how-brave…

Because it's monetizing other peoples content. In my view, it's the same as cutting and pasting somebody else's content onto my own site with my own ads. Even if I promise to give most of the money I make back to the original content creator, I really have no right to the small part I skim. Update: Sorry didn't mean to suggest it was unethical for you to view a page any way you want, but I think the creators of the B…

Also, as others have pointed out in this thread, they don't replace ads on websites with their own. It blocks ads, and if you want you can view Brave ads in exchange for their cryptocurrency and optionally donate them to participating publishers. I'd say this is no worse than a regular ad blocker, but you at least have the choice to attempt to remunerate the publisher for the lost revenue.
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