Nice overview, Chris. One angle I dont see often: how Braves default blocking impacts niche enterprise apps or SSO flows vs Chrome/Edgeany tips for keeping privacy gains without breakng auth? Also curious if youve tested MV3 filter performance on lower-end laptops.
Good question. It's like any adblocker , really -- sometimes it breaks things, but you can click the Brave Shields icon in the address bar to turn it off for a particular domain. If you'll be using an adblocker anyway, it's a similar experience to adblockers in other browsers.
As far as MV3 filter performance, that's an interesting question. Google says that MV3 filtering systems are more performant, which sounds like it should be a win, but I'm not sure how much testing has been done yet. What I like about Brave is that, since the adblocker is built into the browser, it should perform better than uBlock Origin classic (which has to go through the extension system.) This feels true but I haven't done extensive benchmarks -- benchmarking this would be super interesting.
I still use Chrome. Yes, Gemini is in every corner, but I find it's not so bad if you just pretend it's Clippy with a marketing budget. Chrome’s bloated, for sure, but it’s the devil I know.
Yup. I just recently switched from Chrome to Brave, actually -- I stuck with Chrome for a long time. Once nice thing about using Chrome is that it is the most popular browser, so it's more easy to speak to the browser most people are running.
Once you end up running a customized Vivaldi or a heavily tweaked LibreWolf, you have a harder time relating to the average web user's browser!
Firefox on both PC and mobile for me. Switched back from Chrome on PC a few years ago, and jumped ship on Android as soon as I found out the mobile version supported the full uBlock Origin extension. In fact I use the same uBO lists and settings on PC and mobile.
I still have the default browsers installed as a backup: Edge on PC (with the same uBO lists and settings, mind you) and Chrome on Android. I haven't actually needed them in ages, but they're at one click away if needed (or a double tap on mobile, thanks Smart Launcher).
I just don't see the point on (1) any forks when I can easily reproduce their perks by tinkering with settings and extensions; and (2) "AI" browsers when I could just open the website or app at will, without them looking into everything I do.
Oh yeah! That's one of the best arguments for Firefox on Android: Full extension support. It's really awesome. I really want to like Firefox, but - it's tough. It does feel like websites are written for Chrome first and Firefox second (if at all.)
I've spent a lot of time bouncing back and forth. To this day, I have Brave, Chrome, and Firefox installed and I keep bouncing back and forth between 'em.
Indeed, Brave is best at filtering out ads. And fast. Having said that, I'm an old timer who's 1st. desktop was an E-machine! Anyway i got fed up with all the switching back and forth between browsers ,new old, redesigned ,AI etc...so i took advantage of a discounted lifetime license for AdGuard AND added a paid Kagi subscription.(Disclaimer: i don't get a small payment for mentioning them). Its not perfect, i still occasionally get a YT vid and Reddit results with fan boys arguing with each other about who's got the most useless answer, but overall its like watching ad free HBO 20 years ago when it was the gold standard of pay tv.
Oh man, I remember eMachines! I had one back in the day, too.
That sounds awesome. I've been meaning to spend more time with Kagi. It feels like a better search experience. But so much of my own personal searching involves digging deep for obscure things in search results. That's not super enjoyable in Google, but I can still get it done in Google.
I do like Kagi a lot. And I've seen a lot of positive chatter about AdGuard, too -- I've dabbled with it as an alternative to uBlock Origin, but I may have to give it a closer look. Thanks!
The uBlock Origin Lite extension, which is MV3 compliant, works really well on Chromium browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. It's worth a look.
It works alright! In my opinion, it never worked quite as well as the integrated adblock in Brave (or the traditional uBlock Origin.) But it does work alright! Definitely a good tip.
Nice! I keep trying Firefox, and I _want_ to like it, but so many websites seem to have little performance problems with it. (This isn't necessarily a Firefox problem -- just an issue with the modern web.)
I understand the choice of Brave on Android, though. I found Firefox to be noticably slower on Android than Brave, Chrome, or other Chromium-based browsers. That's actually one reason I tilted away from Firefox -- this way, I have the same browser on both devices, for bookmark sync and such.
AdGuard just updated their MV 3 extension again with updates that no one else has even tried to do. I'm over the mv3 complaints, AdGuard is perfect now
Interesting -- I may have to give it a look. uBlock Origin Lite worked okay, but I felt like it wasn't as powerful or fast as the integrated Brave adblocker (or the traditional uBlock Origin.)
I'm a Vivaldi fan, totally. I do try any browser that comes a long to check them out, though. Tried Atlas, not impressed and won't be using it. I'm a customization enthusiast and Vivaldi is amazing in that regard. When I'm on another browser I miss this a whole lot. And with Vivaldi, uBlock Origin still works. That alone makes it the best for me. Vivaldi is so customizable that it can be a little overwhelming for some, no doubt. But personally, I eat it up.
Interesting! I'll be honest: I have not used Vivaldi too much. I generally bounce off it quickly -- it feels a little cluttered to me. That's no surprise as it has the traditional Opera browser energy: Opera was a big swiss army knife with a built-in email client, note panel, and so on.
I don't use a lot of the options available. I don't use the mail client and a number of the panel options. But the panel is a great feature and I do use it a lot for certain things. The workspace option is one I've started using recently and find it a good one. I'm always discovering something new that I find useful. Being able to tailor context menus to my liking is a godsend. A recent update has condensed the context menus to keep them from overwhelming you. The good thing is that the numerous features don't get in the way if you're not using them. But they're there if you want them and for you to discover at any point. Another godsend is being able to create shortcut keys for just about anything. I've slowly built up quite a few. Viva Vivaldi!
Read their blog post on it from the past 2 years, but they just had a new one this past week I think and their developers are always pretty great to talk to when there are things that they can actually tell you since you know, they can't tell you everything working under the hood until they get it going properly
I switched to Brave a while ago. I love the profiles and profile sync. I have three profiles one for work, one for personal stuff, and one for my personal business. This allows me to have three different password managers, three different outlook accounts, and chatGPT for work and business. All of these sign on with the right credentials and I do not have to do the sign out then sign shuffle.
Nice. I am personally a big fan of browser profiles, too. Technically, Firefox had browser profiles before Chrome and Chromium-style browsers, but Firefox hid them behind a power user tool (the profile manager.) Eventually, Chromium added easy browser profiles and, essentially, beat Firefox in terms of mindshare on that feature.
Nice overview, Chris. One angle I dont see often: how Braves default blocking impacts niche enterprise apps or SSO flows vs Chrome/Edgeany tips for keeping privacy gains without breakng auth? Also curious if youve tested MV3 filter performance on lower-end laptops.
Good question. It's like any adblocker , really -- sometimes it breaks things, but you can click the Brave Shields icon in the address bar to turn it off for a particular domain. If you'll be using an adblocker anyway, it's a similar experience to adblockers in other browsers.
As far as MV3 filter performance, that's an interesting question. Google says that MV3 filtering systems are more performant, which sounds like it should be a win, but I'm not sure how much testing has been done yet. What I like about Brave is that, since the adblocker is built into the browser, it should perform better than uBlock Origin classic (which has to go through the extension system.) This feels true but I haven't done extensive benchmarks -- benchmarking this would be super interesting.
I still use Chrome. Yes, Gemini is in every corner, but I find it's not so bad if you just pretend it's Clippy with a marketing budget. Chrome’s bloated, for sure, but it’s the devil I know.
Yup. I just recently switched from Chrome to Brave, actually -- I stuck with Chrome for a long time. Once nice thing about using Chrome is that it is the most popular browser, so it's more easy to speak to the browser most people are running.
Once you end up running a customized Vivaldi or a heavily tweaked LibreWolf, you have a harder time relating to the average web user's browser!
Firefox on both PC and mobile for me. Switched back from Chrome on PC a few years ago, and jumped ship on Android as soon as I found out the mobile version supported the full uBlock Origin extension. In fact I use the same uBO lists and settings on PC and mobile.
I still have the default browsers installed as a backup: Edge on PC (with the same uBO lists and settings, mind you) and Chrome on Android. I haven't actually needed them in ages, but they're at one click away if needed (or a double tap on mobile, thanks Smart Launcher).
I just don't see the point on (1) any forks when I can easily reproduce their perks by tinkering with settings and extensions; and (2) "AI" browsers when I could just open the website or app at will, without them looking into everything I do.
Oh yeah! That's one of the best arguments for Firefox on Android: Full extension support. It's really awesome. I really want to like Firefox, but - it's tough. It does feel like websites are written for Chrome first and Firefox second (if at all.)
I've spent a lot of time bouncing back and forth. To this day, I have Brave, Chrome, and Firefox installed and I keep bouncing back and forth between 'em.
Indeed, Brave is best at filtering out ads. And fast. Having said that, I'm an old timer who's 1st. desktop was an E-machine! Anyway i got fed up with all the switching back and forth between browsers ,new old, redesigned ,AI etc...so i took advantage of a discounted lifetime license for AdGuard AND added a paid Kagi subscription.(Disclaimer: i don't get a small payment for mentioning them). Its not perfect, i still occasionally get a YT vid and Reddit results with fan boys arguing with each other about who's got the most useless answer, but overall its like watching ad free HBO 20 years ago when it was the gold standard of pay tv.
Oh man, I remember eMachines! I had one back in the day, too.
That sounds awesome. I've been meaning to spend more time with Kagi. It feels like a better search experience. But so much of my own personal searching involves digging deep for obscure things in search results. That's not super enjoyable in Google, but I can still get it done in Google.
I do like Kagi a lot. And I've seen a lot of positive chatter about AdGuard, too -- I've dabbled with it as an alternative to uBlock Origin, but I may have to give it a closer look. Thanks!
The uBlock Origin Lite extension, which is MV3 compliant, works really well on Chromium browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. It's worth a look.
It works alright! In my opinion, it never worked quite as well as the integrated adblock in Brave (or the traditional uBlock Origin.) But it does work alright! Definitely a good tip.
Firefox on my PC, simply because I know my way around it and have it all tuned up, and Brave on my Pixel.
Nice! I keep trying Firefox, and I _want_ to like it, but so many websites seem to have little performance problems with it. (This isn't necessarily a Firefox problem -- just an issue with the modern web.)
I understand the choice of Brave on Android, though. I found Firefox to be noticably slower on Android than Brave, Chrome, or other Chromium-based browsers. That's actually one reason I tilted away from Firefox -- this way, I have the same browser on both devices, for bookmark sync and such.
AdGuard just updated their MV 3 extension again with updates that no one else has even tried to do. I'm over the mv3 complaints, AdGuard is perfect now
Interesting -- I may have to give it a look. uBlock Origin Lite worked okay, but I felt like it wasn't as powerful or fast as the integrated Brave adblocker (or the traditional uBlock Origin.)
Thanks!
I'm a Vivaldi fan, totally. I do try any browser that comes a long to check them out, though. Tried Atlas, not impressed and won't be using it. I'm a customization enthusiast and Vivaldi is amazing in that regard. When I'm on another browser I miss this a whole lot. And with Vivaldi, uBlock Origin still works. That alone makes it the best for me. Vivaldi is so customizable that it can be a little overwhelming for some, no doubt. But personally, I eat it up.
Interesting! I'll be honest: I have not used Vivaldi too much. I generally bounce off it quickly -- it feels a little cluttered to me. That's no surprise as it has the traditional Opera browser energy: Opera was a big swiss army knife with a built-in email client, note panel, and so on.
Perhaps I should give Vivaldi another look.
I don't use a lot of the options available. I don't use the mail client and a number of the panel options. But the panel is a great feature and I do use it a lot for certain things. The workspace option is one I've started using recently and find it a good one. I'm always discovering something new that I find useful. Being able to tailor context menus to my liking is a godsend. A recent update has condensed the context menus to keep them from overwhelming you. The good thing is that the numerous features don't get in the way if you're not using them. But they're there if you want them and for you to discover at any point. Another godsend is being able to create shortcut keys for just about anything. I've slowly built up quite a few. Viva Vivaldi!
Read their blog post on it from the past 2 years, but they just had a new one this past week I think and their developers are always pretty great to talk to when there are things that they can actually tell you since you know, they can't tell you everything working under the hood until they get it going properly
I switched to Brave a while ago. I love the profiles and profile sync. I have three profiles one for work, one for personal stuff, and one for my personal business. This allows me to have three different password managers, three different outlook accounts, and chatGPT for work and business. All of these sign on with the right credentials and I do not have to do the sign out then sign shuffle.
Nice. I am personally a big fan of browser profiles, too. Technically, Firefox had browser profiles before Chrome and Chromium-style browsers, but Firefox hid them behind a power user tool (the profile manager.) Eventually, Chromium added easy browser profiles and, essentially, beat Firefox in terms of mindshare on that feature.