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Thursday, April 27. 2023

I use Chrome, for no reason.

What browsers do our readers use? And why?

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 12:40 | Comments (33) | Trackbacks (0)

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I use Brave because it offers better security. I used to use Chrome but I realized that Google is an evil company. They track me enough with my Android phone, I don't need them tracking me on every electronic device.

#1 mudbug on 2023-04-27 13:13 (Reply)

Brave has cut out nearly all ads.

#1.1 Texan99 on 2023-04-28 09:29 (Reply)

Brave, for the reasons above and because it has innovations built in that most browsers don't, including Tor compatibility.

Downside: Brave's tracker-blocking is selective. It blocks Google but lets Microsoft and Bing see anything they like.

#1.2 jdgalt1 on 2023-04-28 15:02 (Reply)

Ditto on Brave and the reasons cited by others.

#1.3 steve walsh on 2023-04-29 16:43 (Reply)

Brave; same. No telemetry. Smoking fast.
BTW, Cloudflare is free guys, get https. Join the 20-teens...

#1.4 Tom Armstrong on 2023-04-29 23:33 (Reply)

Chrome
Firefox
Pale Moon (a Firefox clone)
lynx, a text-only browser (it laughs at Javascript firewalls)

#2 Sixtyville on 2023-04-27 13:48 (Reply)

When Firefox choked of it's own weight, I began switching to various incarnations of Chrome, including (but not limited to) Vivaldi, Brave, Opera and now Edge. The various Chrome-based browers I've used have different strengths and weaknesses for the retiree-type things I do with them.

#3 BillH on 2023-04-27 13:58 (Reply)

Brave. Secure, and not too beefed-up.

#4 Erasmus on 2023-04-27 14:09 (Reply)

Anybody use Duck Duck Go?

#5 Apple Pie on 2023-04-27 15:34 (Reply)

I do. I like it as my go to browser.

#5.1 Don on 2023-04-27 16:17 (Reply)

I use Duck Duck Go in Chrome for searches.
It's 'anonymous' compared to Google search but is a poor replacement. It actually uses the Bing or Yahoo search and then presents the results. So it's only as good as those other search engines.

If you still want the preferable Google search results, you can type your search criteria in DDG followed by a g!
That will submit your query to Google instead of Bing/Yahoo...

Chrome is still a memory hog.

Opera on my Android phone because Chrome's new interface is a pain.

#5.2 Earl Wertheimer (Link) on 2023-04-27 20:29 (Reply)

I use Firefox,on both desktop & Android, primarily Firefox Portable on the desktop. For a secondary browser on both I use Iron Browser from SRWare, it's an older-than-Brave Chromium browser. For anywhere sketchy I used the Tor browser, also on desktop and Android.

I have Brave & Vivaldi installed on my Android but rarely use them. Chrome is on my Android (it's not removable 😡) but not my desktop; I rarely use it for privacy reasons.

For email I use ProtonMail, both their free account & a paid account for my vanity domain. I use their ProtonVPN and encrypted ProtonDrive fort cloud storage.

I have a Gmail account but just use it for high-spam stuff like retail stores.

#6 Angus S-F on 2023-04-27 16:00 (Reply)

P. S. I would never use Chrome, there is too much tracking built in

#7 Angus S-F on 2023-04-27 16:02 (Reply)

You don't think you are tracked depending on the browser you use? Poor soul.

#7.1 Ron Snyder (Link) on 2023-04-28 10:19 (Reply)

I use Chrome and Duck Duck Go mostly. Brave a little bit and Edge also a little bit. I haven't thought about Lynx in forever! Wow! Blast from the past!

#8 Lee Also on 2023-04-27 16:24 (Reply)

I mainly use the Iridium browser, which is based on Chrome but re-written to enhance privacy.

For a search engine, I use Swiss Cows. Even Duck Duck Go has privacy problems.

#9 John Foster on 2023-04-27 16:24 (Reply)

I recently searched for a hotel on DuckDuckGo. I chose the first entry in the search since that was certainly the hotel’s website. It turned out that it was not and I almost paid a lot more for the room because I had actually clicked on a third party site. I believe DuckDuckGo probably got paid for putting that third party website at the top (in fact the hotel’s site was about the fourth on the page!). When I ran the same test on SwissCows, I got pretty much the same result as I did with DuckDuckGo.

Now I’m trying Brave search which when I did that search, the hotel’s site was at the top.

Searcher beware!

#9.1 mudbug on 2023-04-27 23:28 (Reply)

Chrome or Brave for most browsing. Firefox for admin work.

Others that I like but don't use as frequently: Opera, Vivaldi, Lynx and its cousin Links.

#10 Thomas (Link) on 2023-04-27 17:45 (Reply)

Brave for me, even though it's starting to have some problems because I'm still running Windows 7.

#11 Jerryskids on 2023-04-27 20:42 (Reply)

I use Chrome because I have a Chromebook.

DuckDuckGo is my default search engine, though.

#12 Eric Lindholm on 2023-04-27 21:04 (Reply)

I'm currently using Brave on Windows and Android. I was using Pale Moon on Windows before that, and Duck Duck Go on Android. But Pale Moon broke too many websites I used so I switched. Duck Duck Go revealed that they let Microsoft track their users, so I dumped it. Before that I used Firefox, but didn't like their leftist orientation. I'm so picky.

Also, I have switched to the ProtonMail system, mail, calendar, storage, and VPN. Phasing out AOL that I have had for decades. Also using Gmail, because if you have Android, you pretty much have to.

#13 Pod Hamp on 2023-04-27 21:13 (Reply)

I use several browsers, sometimes simultaneously.
Prime browser is Vivaldi, written by the same team that wropte Opera, before Opera sold itself to China.
I also Chrome, and WaterFox, a fork of Firefox.
Different browsers allow me to keep separate "personas" separate.

#14 Ken Mitchell on 2023-04-27 23:16 (Reply)

Microsoft Edge with Chrome as the backup.

#15 Daniel Hayes on 2023-04-28 06:09 (Reply)

Brave. Good security. Filters out popups. No tracking.

#16 Bob Shannon on 2023-04-28 07:21 (Reply)

Edge for general browsing and for work. Chrome for watching media and live streaming. Each has its strengths and weaknesses depending on the use.

#17 Amazed on 2023-04-28 11:17 (Reply)

I use Slimjet, a Chromium-based browser without the Google Chrome data-harvesting (supposedly). There is an interesting new browser that I'm trying, Tusk, which promises not to spy on you. It provides a customizable news feed for conservative customers. It is the work of, among others, Matt Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes. It offers a browser extension called Gippr, which is an AI chat-bot that promotes conservatism and liberty in the voice of Ronald Reagan.

#18 Joe on 2023-04-28 11:22 (Reply)

Firefox because it used to be slim and fast, but that's no longer the case. Out of laziness and habit I haven't changed, but intend to. Edge works better than I like to admit and is probably the best choice now for performance. Your readers have put much more thought into their browsers than I have. I plan on checking out most of them in the near future.

Chrome is a resource hog even when left unopened and I don't want it installed on any computer I use.

#19 jack walter on 2023-04-28 11:33 (Reply)

Safari. It’s Apple and protects privacy

#20 Ns on 2023-04-28 11:49 (Reply)

Chrome, mostly due to inertia and having an Android phone. Our tech group was slow rolling out Edge due to in-house apps that would only work with IE and so I got used to using Chrome at work to access software vendor websites when they started throwing errors with our old IE package.

#21 Christopher B on 2023-04-28 14:18 (Reply)

Chrome on Chromebook and an older Windows 7 machine. Edge on current Windows 10 laptop. DDG for search on all machines. Tried Brave but can't recall what I didn't like about it -- maybe streaming issues?

#22 R C Belaire on 2023-04-28 14:56 (Reply)

Seamonkey because it's the direct descendant of Netscape Navigator.

#23 Jimk on 2023-04-28 15:47 (Reply)

The "good" (i.e., more secure/private) browsers mentioned here can be further improved by using a VPN (essential) and Kamo and a number of browser extensions, such as Pixel Block & Pixel Block 2, Bitdefender anti-Tracker, Ugly Email, Privacy Badger, Guardio, uBlackList, U Block Origin, MalwareBytes, TamperMonkey, Ghostery, etc. and running in an incognito window in Sandboxie. What I am seeking to add is protection against browser session cookie hijacking but this really needs to be done on the website/server side.

#24 Tanstafl on 2023-04-28 17:29 (Reply)

Brave currently. Duck duck go previously.

#25 Jon from Illinois on 2023-04-29 16:58 (Reply)

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Thursday, April 27. 2023

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