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The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

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Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#81

Post by RandomBacon »

atomical wrote: post #72
RandomBacon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the battery life of Brave comapred to Chrome with an ad-blocker ? How about the more privacy-respecting Firefox with an ad-blocker ?

If everyone uses either of your suggested options the publishers go broke and there is no content to view. Brave has a plan for that. So yes, they are farther along than any idea you have presented.

There are websites that sell static ad space and don't use third-party tracking tools.

I'm not saying that is the answer, or that Brave/BAT is not the answer. I'm just saying if battery life is what you care about, there are better alternatives.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#82

Post by ignoramous »

I think what Brave is doing might be misunderstood: it seems like a brilliant take on the current problem facing content creators... I think of Brave as trying to reach a common ground-- help content creators make a profit, put the consumers out of the current dragnet misery. That said, there might still be opportunities for different (not necessarily controversy-free) solutions, like the ones that are set in motion:

- Net Neutrality violating deals by ISPs/BigTech.

- Users forced to install apps (in a bid to escape the browsers).

- Native advertising, where ads are indistinguishable from actual content.

...and so on. Is Brave's model any worse [0]? For better or for worse, things will continue to change.

[0] IIRC, they have more than 10M installs. I reckon, if they hit 100M or so, they'd be fatal to the ad-networks. I don't see any other tech today wielding that kind of threat? Adblockers might have higher installation numbers, but they don't solve the problems for the content creators, so they are not really the solution to this mess we are in, imo.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#83

Post by RandomBacon »

justsee wrote: post #79
RandomBacon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the battery life of Brave comapred to Chrome with an ad-blocker ? How about the more privacy-respecting Firefox with an ad-blocker ?

They publicised their research here (20%-40% battery savings on Android) : https://brave.com/brave-saves-batteries/

So Brave is better than FF with uBlock (which still displays ads).

They did not test with uBlock Origin (which does not display ads).

Brave may still do better, but I bet FF with uBlock Origin will do better than FF with uBlock.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#84

Post by RandomBacon »

justsee wrote: post #67
hnaccy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the privacy crowd drawn to Brave couldn't care less what the (current) digital advertising industry wants. Why would I use Brave over a modified Firefox install?

It's faster, more secure, and uses less battery among other things. You can read a lot more detail within the research section of their site [1]. My previous browser setup was Firefox Dev Edition with uBlock origin, but Brave is just a better browser all-round now so I've completely switched. I particularly like where the sync-chain stuff is going [2]. [1] https://brave.com/research [2] https://github.com/brave/sync

Be aware that they are testing uBlock which still displays ads, not uBlock Origin.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#85

Post by biocomputation »

bravoetch wrote: post #75
techntoke wrote: post #42

Remember that the CEO of Brave is the same guy who had to leave Mozilla for donating money to support California Proposition 8, which called for the banning of same-sex marriage in California.

Are you worried he's making your browser Catholic? I've met him, he's a great guy. Just because you might disagree with his political views doesn't mean you should choose your browser based on that difference.

Not sure how to respond to this. For many gay and lesbian men and women (including myself) Brendan Eich's donation to support Prop 8 was a very clear message. I'm perfectly happy to choose a browser that isn't developed by a man who thinks I shouldn't have the same right to marry as he does.

I said a few years ago that Brave wasn't going anywhere, and it isn't. It's not because Brendan Eich donated to Prop 8 either. The vast majority of the large, liquid market of browser users simply don't care about privacy.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#86

Post by justsee »

arcticbull wrote: post #54

My understanding is they’ve been taking money “on behalf of creators” who never signed up and pocketing it. That’s reason enough for me to not use the product. Sounds like it could be construed as fraud. Eich got pretty defensive on Twitter and this whole thing came up here before too [2]. [1] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/2018/12/24/brave-browser-is-c... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18736759

Actually that's not true.

An earlier version of the browser let early adopter users direct where Brave's own marketing budget of BAT tokens was sent to, including sites that hadn't yet signed up.

If those sites didn't sign up, the tokens would eventually go back into the marketing budget pool of tokens, to be distributed to other sites (not to Brave).

That's very different to the mischaraterisation you mention above, but no surprise as Brave's model is a threat to the current fraudulent ad tech ecosystem.

They did make changes to the product immediately after that episode though. Now if you want to donate to a site that hasn't registered your browser will try for a period of time, and if the publisher doesn't sign up the tokens are returned to you to distribute elsewhere.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#87

Post by RandomBacon »

techntoke wrote: post #43
numbers wrote: post #11

Currently, there is no way to actually make money by using Brave, it's essentially Chrome with some adblocker pre-installed.

I'd rather use Chromium with uBlock than install Brave.

I'd rather use Firefox with uBlock Origin installed.

Remember, uBlock still displays ads, uBlock Origin does not display ads.

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#89

Post by Wehrdo »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #55
DennisP wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I frequently find myself confronted by paywalls and demands that I turn off my ad blocker. I can usually find a way around it, but things would be so much simpler if I could just click a button to pay the site a fraction of a penny.

That’s a neat idea. Could be a YC startup idea. A subscription service that gives you access to all the paywall content let’s say 10/month for 50 articles and you don’t even click a button just read. Rather than seperate paywalls, ads etc.

Are you describing Blendle[0]? Access to paywalled content on a pay-per-article basis.

[0] https://launch.blendle.com/

Re: The Brave Browser Will Pay You to Surf the Web

#90

Post by atomical »

RandomBacon wrote: post #81
atomical wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If everyone uses either of your suggested options the publishers go broke and there is no content to view. Brave has a plan for that. So yes, they are farther along than any idea you have presented.

There are websites that sell static ad space and don't use third-party tracking tools. I'm not saying that is the answer, or that Brave/BAT is not the answer. I'm just saying if battery life is what you care about, there are better alternatives.

Brave doesn't block those ads.
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