Brave: Top reasons to ditch Chrome and get this browser

In Chrome, there are some nagging issues such as high RAM consumption and ad trackers, but the quick search results aspect is very appealing and make it very hard for people to move away from Google-made browser to Safari, Firefox, Vivaldi, and DuckDuckGo, among others.

Now, there is a new player, aptly titled --Brave-- in the market that can challenge Chrome in all aspects.

Brave browser: The origin
Brave was developed by Brave Software co-founded by Brendan Eich (CEO) and Brian Bondy (CTO) in 2016. Back then, it had just ad-blocking feature, but the company promised to bring new features that will protect user-privacy and also reward people for using the browser.

Since then, Brave browser has incorporated Tor for private browsing and most importantly improved search results and that too faster. The company finally released stable Brave 1.0 version in November 2019.

Here are top key features of Brave browser:
Shields: After the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal broke out in the open in 2016, everyone was shocked to know how much data-mining companies were tracking the user behaviour to create a profile and feed them ads and news, in that case, a political one to influence people to vote for its client and bad mouth the opposition.

With the Shields feature, Brave browser completely clear cookies, blocks all kinds of trackers, ads, thereby stopping companies from tracking the user across the Web.

Tor integration: Unlike Chrome, Tor not only hides your history, it masks the user's location from the sites he or she visit by routing their browsing through several servers before it reaches the destination. These connections are encrypted to increase anonymity, the company claims.

For now, this Tor integration is only for Web browser, but the company has announced that it will bring to mobile versions (both Android and iOS) soon.

[Note: Tor is free and open-source software, specifically created to enable anonymous communication]

Fast browsing: The company claims the Brave runs on Chromium code and deliver faster browsing and search results experience. It is touted to six times faster than Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Also, it doesn't consume more RAM or power to run on a computer or mobile.

Another key point to be noted is that Brave Software has tweaked Chromium so that there is no room for unauthorised transfer of user data going out, And, nobody's data or hacking tool get into the system via Brave browser.

For the uninitiated, Chromium is a free and open-source web browser project which also powers the Chrome browser. But thanks to the tweaking, Brave users are assured of fast and safe browsing.

Brave Rewards: If you turn on the Brave rewards, users can earn frequent flier-like tokens dubbed as Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) for viewing privacy-respecting ads. Also, users can set the number of ads they want to see per hour.

"Currently you can support your favorite web creators with your tokens, but soon you’ll be able to spend tokens on premium content, gift cards, and more," the company claims.

Based on the time spent (tallied locally on the device's storage) on websites affiliated with the Brave Rewards, the user gets BAT points monthly. They can turn it to the currency of their choice and keep it to themselves or contribute to a website for delivering ad-free news or information and respects user privacy.

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