Best Browsers of 2018 — How I broke my Chrome addiction and the beauty of modern browsers

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Move over Google Chrome

Chrome’s initial release was September 2, 2008; 10 years ago. Chrome Browser just turned 10 years old this past week.

How long has chrome been your default browser?

As the chart above makes extremely obvious that Chrome (green) dominates the North American world.

The current state of browsers is the result of long battles, marketing campaign, strategic partnering, open source projects and Google market dominance.

Browsers are programs made to access webpages, read the internet protocols and store data about the user to enhance their web surfing experience.

The core features that make a browsers are ability to make web calls and render the results in a usable user interface. However browsers are generally rich in features and come in all different shapes and sizes.

The umbrella categories are

• User Information Based(advertising)
• Privacy Based (anonymity)
• Specialty Based (feature)

User Information Based (advertising)

Chrome (privacy policy), Safari, QQ Browser (security concerns), all track large amounts of about you and your actions on the internet. Even when you click incognito tab, private tabor a comparable option — tracking still happens yet its more obscured and muted (don’t think this stops Google or the likes from merging this data with preexisting information about you)

We collect information to provide better services to all our users — from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful, the people who matter most to you online, or which YouTube videos you might like. The information Google collects, and how that information is used, depends on how you use our services and how you manage your privacy controls.

— Google Privacy Policy

In the case of QQ Browser which is widely used in Mainland China is built with tracking in mind. The Chinese government openly censors information that they deem dangerous and large corporations are known to facilities precise tracking with users browser history among other records of individuals actions.

Privacy Based (anonymity)

Tor and Brave, are Browsers that aim to avoid the tracking that User Information Browsers implement. As noted by many respected names in the browser space the current browser’s tracking is not just expensive for the privacy infringed user, but also for electricity and time. So Privacy Browsers are here to help anonymize the users actions, not send data to a cooperation who intends on selling your information and provide a safer experience for the user.

Tor uses a complex system of routing your traffic all around the world before it reaches it destination, then sends it back a completely different way. This way it is very difficult for someone to track your internet traffic.

Here is a semi technical diagram of how Tor works:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-onion-routing-exactly-makeuseof-explains/

Other uses of Privacy Browsers is to natively block ads, like the Brave Browser. Ads are the focus of User Information Browsers and enable a huge inefficient marketplace of middlemen, ad brokers and sketchy data salesmen. Brave aims to block all of these, save time, battery power, and give added security to the user.

Specialty Based (features)

A specialty based browser like Beaker is one that had added features useful to a specific type of user. The Privacy Browsers could arguably be a Specialty Based browser with a focus on privacy. However, Privacy Browsers are established enough to have their own category.

Beaker is a browser and even more so a UI for the DAT protocol project and other Web 3.0 distributed protocols. Web 3.0 protocols are distributed web protocol that hopes to replace or live in parallel to http.

Browser Reviews

Best Browsers in 2018

Brave — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5.0)

Brave Browser Homepage

Its safe, its fast, ad free, battery preserving and it is forward thinking (made to support Web 3.0)

Brave is an open source browser that is focused on fixing some of the major problems

Users face unprecedented levels of malvertisements and privacy violations. Mo- bile advertising results in as much as $23 per month in data charges on the average user’s data plan, slow page loads, and as much as 21% less battery life. In response, over 600 million mobile devices and desktops (globally) employ ad blocking soft- ware and this number is growing.

— Brave (BAT) Whitepaper

Ads don’t just annoy you, but they waste money, time, and your phones battery life!

Based on some of the top viewed websites in the US, here is a breakdown on how expensive those Ad load times are.

As shown above it is apparent Ads are detrimental to the user web surfing experience, and many people use AdBlockers to enhance their internet experience. However this doesn't really cut it, trackers still collect data and Ads still try to populate your browser but a thin later on top stops this. Also many of these AdBlockers make money by only letting Ads through from publishers who pay large sums of money.

Brave stops Ads natively and do not need additional ad blockers. Braves’ success is also based on its ability to continue to provide privacy long term so they are not incentivized to allow Ads from people who have a lot of money.

Brave is also built on top of the open source browser engine, Chromium! Yes, Chome is based on Chromium and is supported and created by Google. However Chromium is publicly available and customizable for more sophisticated Browsers to utilize as the core Browser engine. In this case, Brave uses Chromium and built a powerful, secure Browser on top of this great project.

As you may see the next Browser is Chromium itself as a standalone browser.

Chromium — ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5–5.0)

Chromium Homepage

Awesome browser! The core engine and standalone browser that powers Google Chrome, Brave Browser and many smaller browser projects. All new feature of Chrome first pass through Chromium and this allows Chromium to get new cool features before the general population. Also the UI is more friendly then Chrome and it supports all of your favorite Chrome Plugins.

FireFox — ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.0–4.5)

Firefox Homepage

The leader in Open Source! This project is famous for trailblazing the open source software world and even created the Mozilla Public License which is widely used in major projects today.

Chrome — ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.0–4.5)

Chrome is a great browser, they continue to set the status quo of browsers and dominate the market. Despite my recent switch, I still love Chrome and see it as a top choice.

Beaker — ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3.8-4.0)

Beaker dat:// homepage

Great for specialty and showcasing new protocols like DAT://. However its not likely going to last unless a market specifically for distributed only resources appears. It seems more likely that Web 3.0 protocols will slowly be integrated into out current Web 2.0 protocols, but it is important that people innovate with Web 3.0 in mind. Beaker Browser is championing many issues that we will see in the Web 3.0 world.

4. QQ Browser — ⭐⭐ (2.0)

QQ Browser Homepage

Made by the Chinese mega corp Tencent this Browser has a heavy focus on tracking its users. It is completely made to support commercial interest and does not put the user first. It does have a simple interface and allows you to customize the appearance but this doesn't make up for the background data collection in my opinion.

Safari — ⭐ (0.5–1.5)

Safari Homepage

Trash, Apples attempt at market grab. This browser only exists because the Apple defaults this browser on all of their hardware.

The verdict

Try out Brave Browser— and help support by using this link.

Check it out! Once your ready you can make it your default browser

Please clap if you liked this article! 😊

Any questions please drop a comment 😊