![]() ![]() Not only can you open a private window, but you can open an even deeper level of privacy and use the Tor onion-routing network as well. Microsoft may have won kudos for the privacy rules it’s enforcing within InPrivate Mode within the new Edge, but Brave goes even further. It all adds up to a pleasing, ad-free experience.īrave also understands that there’s surfing privately, and then there’s surfing privately. And yes, ads are blocked automatically, though you can add additional ad blocklists via the Settings menu. All of these are designed to smooth your browsing experience. You can block social media, too, including LinkedIn posts or embedded Twitter tweets. You’ll also notice small icons that may appear from time to time, alerting you that autoplaying videos were blocked automatically. Mark Hachman / IDGĬlicking on the “shield” icon summarizes all that Brave is doing it for you, and allows you to option to fine-tune things even further. If there’s a secure HTTPS connection, Brave will attempt to connect to it. Cross-site cookies-cookies that help identify you as you move from site to site-are also blocked, as well as the collection of various elements of your PC (your IP address, OS, and CPU string, for example) that can allow an advertiser to guess your identity without a dedicated ID. You can prevent scripts from running, though that’s not on by default. Shields can block third-party sites from tracking you around the Web, like Facebook, or third-party advertising services. By default (configurable in the Settings and during setup), shields are “up,” like in Star Trek. Next to each URL in the URL bar is a small “shield” icon, with a Brave lion painted in orange. Mark Hachman / IDGĭuckDuckGo, a privacy-minded search engine, is Brave’s preferred choice, though you can select whatever you want. We’ll talk a bit more about actually rewarding those sites in the next section. Brave does it for you, but allows you to reach out and engage with those sites you choose to. Whether online or in the virtual world, saying “no” constantly can be exhausting. That’s the power of nuking tracking scripts out of the gate, and a solid reason to use Brave. In general, though, Brave easily outperformed all of the other browsers we tested in terms of CPU utilization, with comparable memory performance to Chrome. Brave does excellently here.ĬPU utilization will bounce all over the place as various Web elements are loaded and processed, so take the CPU results with a grain of salt-they can vary by more than ten percent from second to second. In this chart, we show memory usage in thousands of megabytes (gigabytes) on the left, with CPU utilization on the right. (We’ll wait for the “new” Chromium-based Microsoft Edge to be released before adding it.) ![]() We did use three modern Web benchmarks, however, to measure performance between Brave, Chrome 78, the current Edge 44, and Firefox 70. The distinctions are so slight, however, you’ll probably never notice a shift in performance between one browser and another. Performance is also table stakes, and the Brave browser is right in the middle of the pack. Mark Hachman / IDGīrave walks you through a short setup process. A search box for the settings would be helpful.) I say “password,” but even this isn’t that simple you’ll need to establish a “synch chain” with another computer or phone, then enter a Brave-suggested password to connect them. (If two-factor-authentication is available, I missed it. Brave slurped up my favorites, websites, passwords, and other necessities from Chrome, however, and had me browsing happily in just a minute or so.Īs with other browsers, a single master password allows you to sync this information with other instances of the Brave browser, as well as a complementary Android browser that I didn’t test. It’s easy to get up and running fast, but Brave’s more advanced features require some fiddling. Brave easily clears the first hurdle, though setup is a subtly complex process. ![]() Brave runs extensions from the Chrome Web Store, though it will warn you if it thinks you’re installing a dodgy one.īy now, browsers absolutely have to be free and extremely simple to configure. Brave tweaked the open-source Chromium code, including weeding out the Google-specific code that ties the browser to Google Web services. Like many browsers today, including the new Microsoft Edge, the Brave browser is built upon Chromium, the foundation of Google Chrome. Brave’s browser delivers excellent performance ![]() Brave has probably the best “new tab” screen of any browser: killer image, shortcuts to popular sites, as well as a summary of what Brave’s privacy features have done for you. ![]()
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