I’ve been using Brave Search supplemented by Startpage for the past 2+ years. When I search for something, I want to get results for credible webpages, not a summary of unknown quality. I liked the previous AI inclusion because it was instant, didn’t take up much space, and I could quickly navigate to the websites referenced in it, but with the new feature it takes up more space, is slower, and not really what I want out of a search engine.
As soon as the feature was rolled out I disabled it in settings, but the AI button stays visible, I get autocomplete specifically for Answer with AI and I get frequent notifications to try out the new AI feature. An opt-out toggle should not mean that I still am pestered to use the feature I opted out of.
This is really annoying, and I’m probably going to end up switching to Startpage or SearXNG or something.
Some images (opted out of AI features):
Yet another reason why people shouldn’t be using Brave.
If you want a privacy-focused web browser, use Firefox or Vivaldi.
I thought Vivaldi was also shady? Did I maybe confuse it with Opera?
Probably.
Opera is shady. Vivaldi is developed by the people who used to develop Opera, back when it was its own thing and before it sold out to Chinese investors.
Vivaldi is closed-source. Can it be trusted?
I dunno. Everything I’ve seen and heard seems perfectly legit.
But it’s yet another chromium fork, and I don’t use it.
I did for a while, as it has some very nice features, but it would consistently open without resuming my session. It would work for months and then just out of nowhere it would open up as if it was just installed. Everything gone. Utterly unacceptable.
Brave sucks and the people behind brave suck.
Stop expecting anything valuable from the “crypto” browser
Brendan Eich is a piece of shit
Well it’s Brave. They have always pulled shitty shit like this in the past, like rerouting clicks in the background to siphon ad impressions income or pushing crypto scams left and right and center.
I’m really annoyed how everyone is pushing AI. It’s so far not as big a deal as they make it out to be.
I’m trying SearXNG at the moment. Seems better and faster then all others so far.
Before that I tried gibiru.com and mojeek.com but wasn’t satisfied with results or indexes.
Suggest you use DDG, no AI crap from them so far…
DDG sold out and allowed trackers on the mobile app. It’s a slow slide but it’s inevitable
I use the web site through Firefox Focus, I’m happy with that combo.
Then again I also have a pi-hole on my network so… Yeah
pi-holes can’t stop websites you use from collecting your data. they’ve already started accepting cash for things (by way of mobile browser.). it’s only a matter of time before it slides into more things- if it hasn’t already.
currently I’m using start-page and it’s good enough for my needs. The advantage there is they’re in the EU, and have enhanced privacy requirements
Edit: I’ve used Firefox since their first beta. Now I feel old…