The Brave Browser for Ad Publishers and Privacy-First Users

The name of the title might be confusing because one contradicts the other. It might be the case for most of the browsers out there today. The industry-leading Firefox browser blocks almost everything in its Incognito mode, and with their own privacy-first browser, Firefox Focus paved the way for others. The current leader of the pack trying to gain the middle ground is Brave.

That is the Brave 1.0 browser, which is just leaving the beta. As browsers are always free to download and use and therefore gain and make money from users viewing ads and publishers finding new ways of doing so. These get so annoying at times that certain websites are completely unusable. There are numerous pop-ups, videos playing around and so on.

Brave 1.0 is Already Making Some Progress Compared to Rest

The Brave browser was officially released for Beta testing some time ago and has already drawn about 8 million monthly users. It is a free browser, definitely, but it is also open-sourced just like Firefox and unlike Safari. There are hundreds of browsers in the market today, but only a handful of the have been able to make a stable user base.

This is something we all take for granted. We see ads and we skip them as soon as possible. With several browsers taking notice and following the footsteps of Firefox, Apple?s Safari was the first to introduce multiple levels of privacy with their new OS released this year. The same was made available to iPhones and iPad OS too later this year. Safari blocks third-party ads from websites users don?t visit and allows from the ones they do. However, Firefox and Firefox Focus have been pioneering their way by making this a default setting right from the start.

Long before that, there used to be extensions or add-ons for both Firefox and Google Chrome to put in place ad-blockers to some extent. It must be mentioned that there is a consortium that governs the rules and publishers must follow to be eligible to be played and not classified as blocked. This is called the Coalition for Better Ads as is used now by Google for implementing its limited ad-blocker in the Chrome browser. Built-in ad blockers are hard to find and deprive publishers of revenue and even developers of making money. Chrome, however, blocks the ads that fail the standard set by the above consortium.

Microsoft Edge, on the other hand, is making slow progress and is still testing this feature. Google relies mostly on cookies and user information so it announces that it will roll out some ad-blocking tools but does not plan to do away with cookies completely. Most of its revenue is based on selling this information to third-party and ad makers to better recommend ads to users.

Those Rely on Ad Revenue are Hit Hard

To find a middle ground the brave browser aimed to be the fastest browser and also remove ads. At the same time is also wanted to care for ad publishers. This is a difficult middle ground without making some serious effort. But, the Brave browser found a way and this is covered in this Brave browser review too.

For those who rely on ad revenue, there is a new feature called Brave Ads. As the name signifies, this is the solution to the problem; Google has been trying to deal with for a very long time. This avoids advertisers from staying away from using more annoying methods of sending ads. This new solution offers a form of ads that pays the users to view them and at the same time doesn?t allow it to access your data. This means the advertisers will know if a user is viewing the ad without collecting any info. The ads also appear as push notifications rather than banners on the top of a webpage making the load times much faster. This makes Brave the fastest browser with ad blockers.

The Brave Browser Pays Ad Publishers

The way this browser is the fastest browser is by allowing both ad viewers and publishers a common ground that does not break the ad-blocking system and the viewing experience. In this Brave browser review, we cover the process. This is surely a big plan and if not all vendors and ad makers participate it is definitely going to flop.

To give some perspective, HTC had partnered with the long renowned Opera to allow the blockchain micropayments to websites through its Exodus smartphone. The browser was the sole way to make this happen. The thing is that if enough users and advertisers will buy into the new system.

For example, a Dutch app allows you to purchase individual articles from various news websites and has not been a success as one can imagine. And, a company called Civil Foundation aimed to create ad-free media services but severely failed. As Brave tries to use blockchain rewards for paying users and advertisers who can cash it or get gift cards for the money too might not be willing to go the extra mile.

To enable privacy, the Brave browser goes to much more than preventing ad publishers from gathering user info. It also comes with the best privacy feature VPN called Tor. It is inbuilt. So, users can choose between Brave Private and Brave Private with Tor. The onion router hides everything, including your IP, and encrypting all information. This can be used for only specific sensitive work.

Pros

• It is fast, offers unparalleled privacy.
• It also offers ad revenue to ad publishers.

Cons

• The use of blockchain tokens may not be that welcome.

Final Thoughts

The Brave browser review makes it clear that it is a potential candidate in the war of modern browsers where user privacy and ad revenues can both be kept. What is yet to be seen if Brave 1.0 stable release will increase its user base or take it a point of suspension and shut down.