Exploring the Brave browser

A few of my colleagues have been raving about the relatively new, Chromium-based Brave browser lately, so I decided to try it out.

I initially didn’t pay much attention because I’m pretty happy using Firefox as my primary browser. That said, I like a browser that blocks tracker crud on the Web, so I thought I’d try it out.

The biggest plus for me is that the browser blocks trackers out of the box. It’s one of the reasons I’m a big Firefox fan – pretty robust tracker blocking from the start.

Brave puts performance, and security at the forefront, literally, with indicators of how much the browser is blocking as you journey across the Web, and how much time it seems to be saving as your browse:

I haven’t really compared Brave’s blocking stats with Firefox’s (I’m not sure if I can really compare them directly given that I just see totals, not a breakdown), but it is gratifying to see that value go up.

In Firefox, I set my start page as about:protections so I see this data each time I start up my browser, too:

If anything, these values are great reminders of how much cruft is on the Web, degrading our browsing experience.

Another aspect of the Brave model is how it uses Basic Attention Tokens as a way to reward us consumers for visiting participating content creators’ sites.

I don’t fully understand how Brave Rewards work, but I like this idea of enabling consumers to make micro-contributions to content creators, and help support them. It’s a bit like Recurring Payments on WordPress.com.

That said, I intend doing some more research. The model intrigues me!

If you’re interested in trying the Brave browser out, here are a couple things I’ve discovered so far that may help you make the move from Chrome, if you’re a Chrome user:

• Brave is Chromium-based, so it actually looks and feels a lot like Chrome;
• You can install Chrome extensions in Brave, just like you do with Chrome;
• Instead of using Google sync to sync between Brave browsers on different browsers, Brave has its own sync tool. This may be appealing if you don’t want Google at the heart of your browsing experience.

I’ve enjoyed using Brave so far. I’m not switching away from Firefox just yet, but I’m using Brave as my preferred Chromium-based browser, and it’s working well for me.

In the meantime, here are a couple posts that I’m going to read for broader perspectives on Brave:

• The road to Brave 1.0
• Why I chose Brave as my Chrome browser replacement – The Verge
• Brave 1.0 review: This excellent, privacy-focused browser can make you money, too | PCWorld