Battle Switching Browsers 2019 - Brave v Chrome v Edge-Chromium v Firefox

Ink

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There has been a lot of news coming to light regarding Internet web browser this year. Let's see which one you'll be switching to.

Here's a short run down;
  • Chrome restricting Ad-blockers, dark mode and more colours
  • Firefox with enhanced privacy out of the box, and upcoming premium services for VPN and cloud storage
  • Brave with their blockchain-based tokens, rewarding creators and maintaining privacy
  • Microsoft with a Chromium-based browser to replace Edge, without all the shame of Google

If you are going to make the switch, which one are you going to?
 

BoraMurdar

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Edge Chromium over here. Speed is the same as Google Chrome's, features are quickly becoming better than Chrome has.
It will probably get even stronger boost when Microsoft integrates it completely into Windows 10 like they did with the old Edge.

It should be running the best as development will be focused totally on Windows Platform. Although I heard some news that it's coming to Linux also.

About Firefox... Dunno, when I heard that its speed improved drastically I have installed it and I have mixed opinions. On my new PC it's running quite good but slightly slower than Chrome. On my old laptop it's the same old slow Firefox.

So I think Chrome has a mild Edge over the Fox just like the Edge has over the Chrome (You see what I did here)... :emoji_innocent:
 

ebocious

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All linked to using Google services and DNT is available on all browsers, yet maybe not be effective enough.
I actually like some of Google's services (Google Safe Browsing, for example), and their extensions even more. What I don't like is tracking, which Vivaldi doesn't have. It has Chrome's best qualities, while shedding its major flaws. Just throw WebRTC Leak Prevent in there with a few other security extensions, and I'm golden.
 

Moonhorse

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huutisstarttaa.png


I have been using firefox on android forever, i like the upcoming firefox preview since it has built-in ublock origin extension....but on desktop firefox feels sloppy compared to chrome...but only reason im using it on computer is that the sync between mobile and desktop works well


Now im wanting to get rid of firefox, theyre only copying every update that google does and the recent telemetry news got me thinking about swapping browser


What im looking for is browser for android that has adblocking feature to block youtube ads and not just little cosmetics, i just installed brave on android and it seems to block youtube ads, and the most annoying ones and the sync between desktop is kinda okay i guess

Yandex is the best chromium android browser i have tried, wich supports ublock origin and other chrome web store extensions, id like to use it and its sync, but on desktop many av vendors detects its as a pup, wich makes me bit nervous about using it as only browser

Edge on desktop is fine, but on android its still on baby steps so i dont bother with android version for now

It just seems most android browsers are unable to use google web store or has poor adblocking capalities, on desktop most are fine but like opera is behind the chrome on patching etc.

I use adguard dns on android, and not looking to purchase the premium yet
 

Sampei Nihira

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I understand that those who opened 3D look for functionality.
It is not clear for what purpose.
No Chrome-based browser can have the functionality of Firefox-based browsers if we consider the possibility of action in the settings (about: config).

So my choice, although I won't cast my vote, is Firefox.
As a second choice I would choose Chrome.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 72227

Now im wanting to get rid of firefox, theyre only copying every update that google does and the recent telemetry news got me thinking about swapping browser

Ah the trend continues. Mozilla got the edge (no pun intended :p) over MS for quite a while and became complacent as time goes on. Everyone was using Firefox for the longest time, then Google came along with Chrome. While not as good as Firefox initially, it developed and grew fairly quickly. Now they have zoomed way past Firefox and Mozilla is playing catchup because like many other companies, they stop developing and just start costing.

Apple is another great example. The introduced the iPhone. No one had such a device. They had the market for a few years, then Android and Apple's competitors started. Again not as good at first, but Apple became complacent and yet again Android and other phone makers caught up and passed Apple. Now Apple is playing the catch up game, adding features and functionality that their competitors have had for years now.

Lesson is all of this, dont become complacent and assume you will never be overtaken. You have to keep developing don't just cost by.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 85179

I actually make the switch from Firefox to Chromium-Edge.
After years of using Firefox, they only get worse and worse.
Now they use cloudflare DNS by default, sell a VPN and many other stuff which no one need / is unwanted.

Mozilla doesn't care about users a long time and that's why most users switch.

@Moonhorse thanks for that picture.
Here the link to that blog post: The Firefox Browser is a privacy nightmare on desktop and mobile
 
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enaph

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..replacing ads with own ads & inject JavaScript into sites to get their "privacy" stuff work ;)
Brave ads are and always were opt-in and more to that - you get paid if will to receive them - don't even need to click on them.
They are not injected into websites but Brave use OS built-in notification mechanisms to display them.
Not sure what JS injections you are talking about - can you share some more info please?
 
F

ForgottenSeer 85179

Not sure what JS injections you are talking about - can you share some more info please?
I doesn't have the source anymore, but i read that's how Brave get some "privacy" stuff without addons.

Brave does neither of those things.
It's known that Brave replace ads with their own ads system.
I also don't care if this is Opt-In or Opt-Out. It's suspicious
 

Arequire

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It's known that Brave replace ads with their own ads system.
It's addressed right there on their site:
Brave Ads do not replace current web page ads.
By default, Brave blocks privacy-invading web ads and trackers that are embedded in page content. Joining Brave Rewards and viewing Brave Ads does not affect your current blocking settings for each website you visit. The ads you see as part of Brave Rewards are shown separately from your browsing experience and are not the same as the invasive, performance-sapping ads embedded in websites.
 

enaph

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I doesn't have the source anymore, but i read that's how Brave get some "privacy" stuff without addons.
What a nonsense...
It's known that Brave replace ads with their own ads system.
I also don't care if this is Opt-In or Opt-Out. It's suspicious
Sure it does but you need to learn how it's implemented and how it works before you start a rant.
Read the link provided by @Arequire first then we can discuss it further.
 

oldschool

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..replacing ads with own ads & inject JavaScript into sites to get their "privacy" stuff work ;)

I sorry, but you completely misunderstand how Brave works. @Arequire and @pablozi are correct. You might want to do more research before coming to your conclusions.

 

oldschool

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brave browser can remotely inject headers into HTTP requests
that is a backdoor of sorts for tracking purposes
there is other stuff too for anyone who knows how to look for it

"If they’re not tracking me, how does it know what ads to serve that are “relevant” to me?
Brave is introducing a new way of delivering ads.

In traditional advertising, when a user navigates to a web page, a series of calls are made to an ad server that include information about you and your behavior. This, and other data, is shared with third parties that profile users and use that data to target you with ads. Brave’s approach is very different. Instead of having the user’s data leak from the device to the cloud, Brave’s ad server sends an Ads Catalog to all Brave Rewards users that includes a list of all available ads.
The browser uses local machine learning to determine the best time and opportunity to present an ad, and matches an ad from the catalog based on the content and intent of the user. Ads are matched locally to the most complete and direct data set, your browsing profile You end up with ads that are actually relevant to your experience."

What is this "other stuff"? What is your investigation method for these claims?
 

Arequire

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brave browser can remotely inject headers into HTTP requests
that is a backdoor of sorts for tracking purposes
there is other stuff too for anyone who knows how to look for it
Brendan Eich (Brave's CEO) already responded to this:
Update to say this is not a "backdoor" in any event, and custom headers are allowed per https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-5.

Lots of confusion today about network requests or (in this case) custom but user-id-free headers vs. "tracking". A script load exception list (we will try to get rid of it; new thinking is defer until user clicks on FBConnect widget) we hardcode should be overridable and really should go away, but we are practical about not defaulting to a browser that doesn't work on too many sites to have adoption. That's on my twitter today.

This post is about custom HTTP headers we send to partners, with fixed header values. We could have just hacked the user-agent: header but chose custom instead. There is no tracking hazard here.

In both cases, third party tracking requires some kind of persistent-in-the-client identifier, or else fingerprinting. We block 3rd party cookies and storage, also 3rd party fingerprinting. We block (dual-key, actually -- same as Safari) HSTS supercookies (HSTS added 1 bit per domain of client-persistent state, so 32 junk domains enables the Criteos of the world to make a per-user 32-bit identifier).

As a user, I find it important to understand the diffs between requests and tracking before choosing a tracking protection solution. At first (in the '90s), I didn't grok the implications of 3rd party cookies, images, and scripts -- neither did pmarca or montulli, lol. Those genies are long out of their bottles.

Also I find it silly to assume we will "heel turn" so obviously and track our users. C'mon! We defined our model so we can't cheat without losing lead users who would see through it. That requires seeing clearly things like the difference between tracking and script blocking or custom header sending, though.


Whether anyone believes him or not is up to each individual but there's no evidence it has/is being used for tracking.
 

Azure

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..replacing ads with own ads & inject JavaScript into sites to get their "privacy" stuff work ;)
Yeah, it doesn't do that unless explicitly choose to enable Brave Rewards. Also the ads don't get replaced per se.

Much of criticism of Brave either come from that haven't used it or misunderstand what its feature are
 

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