I don’t trust Brave one bit. Its whole approach reeks of a bait-and-switch (think “we won’t share or sell your data” pre-9/11 Google). Its founder is a massive homophobe and crypto-bro, and I have a massive learned distrust of homophobes and crypto-bros.
Moreover, I see no reason to use it when we already have far superior options (Firefox).
I don’t generally use that feature, even as a programmer, but I use Google at work just because my privacy is already pretty exposed at work and I’m not looking up anything wild on a corporate network. I also enjoy the targeting in this particular instance because then my search results are developer focused
You should also check out Tab for a Cause as well! A new tab screen that uses ad revenue to donate to charities. You can select your cause and every new tab you open contributes to it
I can get you a referral link the next time I’m on my desktop, it you’d like
I appreciate the sentiment and the offer, but I know that Tab for a Cause does not support Firefox, and I exclusively use Firefox browsers.
However, I do donate directly to several non-profits, and I work for a charitable non-profit myself, so I’ll actually mention this to my admins because I don’t think we’re part of this yet! So thanks!
Thank you for pointing that fact out! It sounds like it was decided by Mozilla about a year ago to institute that change and I hadn’t noticed the lack of ads until today. At one point it did have issues, but I was able to get around that by changing some settings. But from the sounds of it that may no longer be possible
I just tried it, and my one concern is that it appears to tailor its results based on locational data, which is a feature I try to avoid. Like you said, I might use it sometimes, but I’m sticking with Startpage and SearXNG instances as my primary search engines for now. I’m adding it to my list though, so I can test it out a bit more. Maybe there’s a setting I haven’t found yet.
I went to the open streetwise magazine and asked folks if any search engines use open streetmaps by default with searches and they steered me to quant. to boot it otherwise behaves just like duck duck go but does not have the microsoft baggage.
Unfortunately, my experience with qwant does not corroborate this. In spite of promoting themselves as “the search engine that doesn’t know anything about you,” in reality the use locational data derived from your IP to provide tailored search results. This function is not opt-in, and in fact there is apparently no way to opt out.
I don’t think I need to explain why this is deeply problematic in a privacy community, but just in case: Imagine that people in my location tend to have right-wing extremist interests. A search engine could then decide that people in my area are interested in right-wing conspiracies and thus serve me more of this type of result. (This has in fact been the case for me upon first testing a site or app when all it has is my general locational data to serve me algorithmic recommendations, so this is a concrete problem for me.)
On top of this, a search engine that brazenly declares to know nothing about me is in fact using data derived from me to customize results? They have breached my trust from the start.
A search engine should use only search terms, syntax, and data I manually and knowingly provide to produce results. No more than this.
The way I test this is quite simple: Try searching “restaurants in my area.” When I do so, it currently provides a list of restaurants in Helsinki, since that is where I’m currently connecting via VPN. When I disconnect my VPN and try again, it gives results for my home town. Any search engine that does this is not one I opt to use.
Gonna give SearXNG a spin then, since even though “I don’t have anything to hide talk”, privacy is a right we’re better off upholding and I want to use services that respect it.
Does any search engine work well for super specific stuff these days? I’m finding search is increasingly useless for my niches (high level topics usually being Carpentry, Building Codes, and Astronomy) but their results usually take me to a word vomit blog, something clearly GPT generated or Pinterest spam (DuckDuckGo is terrible for that)
To be fair, more often than not I find stuff by going into “siloed sites” (yt, forums, etc) and searching from there than using a search engine, but it’s still good for stuff that are more common but also more of a hassle trying to remember than just searching it quickly (e.g. “how do I add my user to sudoers again?” kind of stuff)
It absolutely is a sliding scale, which is why you trust some people more than others. You have friends you can trust with some things and not others. Same thing with companies. I realize their somewhat shady but a far cry better than those I mentioned.
Trust is a sliding scale. The majority of Braves code (at least for their browser) is open source, this means you should at least trust them more than companies whos products are wholly proprietary.
I’ve never had a problem on Firefox. What is the complaint people have about browser tabs in Firefox? The only complaints I’ve seen have been strictly cosmetic.
I do agree it would be nice to have more folders for my mobile bookmarks. It’s actually one thing that perplexes me. Seems like such a basic thing. It definitely would not make me switch browsers, though, especially not to Brave.
Edit: Perhaps ironically, I just remembered the thing that made me switch from Chrome on Android once and for all was their insistence on displaying browser tabs as cards. At the time, I had heard many of the same myths and half-truths about Firefox that are being shared in this thread (slow, buggy, won’t recognize certificates). Happily, I discovered none of these things were accurate, and in fact if anything it ran faster and more efficiently on my device. It was at that point that I also started becoming more concerned about my privacy, and I subsequently learned that I was already using the best browser where privacy is concerned – I just had to adjust a few settings and switch to a different branch. Funny how “better browser tabs” is hailed as a reason to use a chromium-based browser, when I found the better browser tabs in Firefox all along!
Chromium browsers could one day be forced to adopt Google Chrome’s updates to maintain their licenses. This could mean that Chrome’s war against ad-block could spread even to Brave. That gives Google too much control over the internet for any one company.
It definetly can happen. Using Firefox is very important this days. Definetly. So do I. Giving all control about WEB to Google is too bad idea. But it is reality we see.
Firefox Android extension support is a killer feature. Use it extensively. I was talking about some extensions that are not available on desktop Firefox compared to chromium browsers.
For me, everything is OK. But I heard people that needed very specific extensions for work/hobby/productivity that are not available in Firefox. So Brave will be just better on desktop then 🙂
That’s in your head. I cannot think of anything Firefox won’t do for me. And if I came across something I needed chromium for, I would open it that one time. My privacy is worth that tiniest bit of effort.
As an independent computer consultant full time, I operate heavily through my browser for a good 60% of my work.
Tabs folders on Android is a big reason to use Brave instead of Firefox. Tab management is way better. Not some habit. Straight facts. But Firefox has different benefits. F.E. multiple search engines to use in search bar.
Tab folders became such a nuisance for me on Chrome Mobile I started using Firefox. I keep only 5-6 tabs open at a time, webpages opening in the same tab group thing was just too confusing for my very lean tab management mind. Now my 5 tabs really had “9 tabs”.
For me, there are a few plugins that don’t exist on Firefox, which I need. The plugin environment isn’t nearly as robust or kept up-to-date as chromium-based browsers.
I’d be interested to hear which plugins you are referring to as my experience with Firefox has been much the opposite. I often find the plug-in selection lacking when required to use a Chromium based browser.
Fair enough. That’s a fairly niche case, but I could see myself using a chromium browser if I had to use this tool at work, but then switching back to Firefox for everything else.
I still wouldn’t use Brave, though, and it would be even better if more developers started supporting Firefox instead.
From what I remember, autoridade tributaria had some buttons or links that wouldn’t do anything on firefox. I remember suspecting it was javascript, but then noticed that Chrome didn’t have issues.
Seg social and fundo ambiental had odd behaviors but I can’t remember exactly what they were.
I remember having to use Internet Explorer to do some actions on the autoridade tributária website, like simulating and submitting IRS (even had to download an external application) but that was like 10-12 years ago. More recently, I had to do some stuff with regards to opening and closing my activity (I was on recibos verdes for a while) and did it all through Firefox. Haven’t had to do much else beyond this.
As for seg. social, I just tried to log in and it said my password expired and I had to create a new one. But when I filled in the password fields and tried to click on the button to submit it, it didn’t work. In any browser. Because there was no fucking link associated with the button. So the button did nothing. I had to manually click on the “recover my password” link so I could a create a new one.
When I logged in, I just clicked on a few things, even simulated my retirement pension and everything worked. It’s not much of a test, I know, but it’s something.
Never entered fundo ambiental so I have no idea if it works or not.
Your information is probably no longer accurate then. Firefox has undergone many significant updates even within the past year, and it’s very likely those tools are now fully functional, as I’d suspect at some point they’d have been reported on Bugzilla.
I have to access many US government web sites regularly, including the US IRS web site, and I never have a problem.
Back when I was studying computer engineering I was also an avid fan of firefox and I also kept hearing and parroting those lines. Eventually I gave up and stuck with chromium based browsers. (Also because of other reasons, like some extensions only being available for chrome, html games support, etc)
US and portuguese governments are in different leagues. I would assume that yours has better funding and spends more on their virtual infrastructure. I doubt they are comparable, but it is possible that they fixed those issues that I had meanwhile
It’s probably been fixed. I’m not just “parroting those lines” – I’m suggesting that if you find it’s still not functioning on Firefox, the thing to do is to report the issue. (I had previously said Bugzilla, but they get reported to Web Compat now.) I will mention that our IRS is not known for its efficiency and being up to date lol.
I can see that you’re enthusiast and care about firefox, it’s thanks to people like you that these tools get better. But me, for lack of better words, can’t bring myself to care that much about any piece of software that ain’t related to my job, nevermind reporting issues. I’ll use whatever gives me less trouble in my personal time, if in the future things change for chromium, I’ll come back to firefox.
When I get home I’ll check my extensions and pass you the ones that don’t exist for firefox. Right now the only one I remember isn’t really an extension, it’s the text to speech function of Edge, that uses their AI voices.
Thanks for agreeing to look into this. It’s very frustrating when there are so many users claiming certain add-ons are missing in Firefox without ever being able to provide specific examples. It’s the same thing I see when people mention web sites breaking on Firefox, but no one can ever provide links so someone who is interested in fixing things can help.
And I do understand not feeling led to devote time and energy to troubleshooting. That’s one reason I’d like to understand what you’re looking for. I enjoy spending time in shared spaces with some very active add-on developers as well as communities like the Mozilla forums, so I’d be happy to share anything people feel is missing on your behalf.
Also, I do understand finding certain features convenient that Microsoft and Google can provide, but I’m also aware that some of these features come at the cost of our personal data and privacy, which is also a line one has to draw for oneself. I even know people who won’t join Lemmy due to concerns, so I understand this is a personal choice. It’s just nice to know we have such choices and that they are not forced on us.
This is honestly the first valid drawback I’ve seen in this thread about Firefox. Personally, I have to disable most gesture-based features on my device due to my big clumsy hands and perhaps a bit of an inherited neurological problem, but I understand that most users are not like me.
I’d encourage you to share your needs with the Firefox community. I’ve seen some amazing features and add-ons born out of someone simply stepping forward and pointing out how useful a certain feature would be.
At the time I switched, the built-in blocker worked on a site I regularly used while Firefox+ublock did not (I think it would just prevent things from working or cause infinite ad-loops). If I wasn't looking for an alternative adblocker, would probably have never bothered switching. There's also the "get pocket change from using our browser" thing. Some may have been speculating on the value of BATs?
I’m using Firefox & Brave Search which is kinda ironic. I’m open to other suggestions if anybody can recommend anything close to Google and with good support for searches in other languages (I speak Polish)
Being a chromium skin is a business decision. I don’t like it, but at least I understand the thought process. The crypto stuff however? No thanks. That’s when I take my business elsewhere.
Not a lot, at least not anymore. Brave has annoying cyrpto-ads that I always have to turn off every time I reinstall their browser, their sync service sucks, and ever since they dropped Bing, Brave search became useless.
Firefox/Librewolf +containers should really be the end of the conversation every time a Chrome Clone is brought up. Throw FF a few bucks their way and you can add a different VPN per container. Shopping container with a USA VPN, social media container on an EU VPN, etc.
You don’t HAVE to do all that. With that said, Firefox containers are an absolute game changer. If I need to visit a Meta brand site, the URL automatically opens into a Facebook container and that’s where everything related to it stays (including trackers). Same goes for Amazon (Shopping container), my bank and investment account (Banking), and personal stuff like my doctor’s healthcare portal (Personal). None of those are anonymous or anything like it, but it keeps them compartmentalized. I don’t need Amazon or Facebook knowing that I go to Hospital Y or Bank Z.
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