I've been seeing many ads to download the Brave Browser, claiming it is, "3X Faster Than Chrome."
So, I've been taking it for a "test drive" and wanted to share my observations with you.
I admin over 200 safelists, and view literally hundreds of websites every day, both as admin, but also as a member and user posting my own promotions. I interact daily with about 10-15 different safelist "scripts", the underlying software that gives you the features and functionality you see when you login to that site. Each script, and even versions of each script, has its own idiosyncrasies, so there are a lot of variables to deal with.
I run into anomalies with these scripts even with tried-and-true PC browsers like Chrome or Firefox. And then there are Android and Apple variations. We're lucky anything at all works because the internet software development world has resorted to "throw any piece of crap software out there and we'll fix it on the almost-daily point releases". No professionalism, testing methodologies, or quality control... just amateur hackers.
Download
The download is easy enough, but be careful not to get sucked into those annoying "Manage your Drivers" scam sites. Be sure you are only downloading the "BraveBrowserSetup-QUK420.exe" or similar file.
Bookmarks
With so many sites to use and manage, I live by my massive lists of bookmarks. Brave got high marks in importing my precious bookmarks unscathed from Chrome with a single click. This would be a show-stopper for me, but Brave survived this test.
Options
I almost never accept out-of-the-box options, especially for start-up screens, security, behavior, and personalization options. I found that the options I would look for to enable the same behaviors as my Chrome setup were adequate and unambiguous.
Extensions
My daily routines are built solidly around several must-have add-ons. From a compatibility perspective, some of the Chrome extensions DO work (surprising) but some do not.
To enable accessibility features. Microsoft Windows 10 accessibility accessory, On-screen Keyboard, worked OK, but Chrome Voice in Voice Typing does not work.
Password management is a show-stopper. Roboform Everywhere seems to work fine and automatically synchronizes with all other installations. All my saved passwords in Chrome seemed to be carried over.
Cache and cookies management with Click & Clean is OK.
External Automation Tools
I use several show-stopper automation tools that I tested.
Logitech Keyboard Shortcuts and programmable keyboard keys with the Logitech M-series external wireless keyboard and mouse worked seamlessly.
JitBit Autotext for programmable multiple-clipboard automation worked fine.
A Chrome extension to automate form fill called Autofill does load but it must be installed as another instance in Brave, separate from the Chrome version. It does not load the Autofill fields and data defined in Chrome. There is no synchronization between the two instances (bummer) however this is not unlike Chrome/Firefox. My workaround for this is to make all my Autofill changes and updates in Chrome, export to CSV, then import to both Brave and Firefox. In the course of a day, I make many changes and updates (like altering subject lines on Solo ads), so this manual synch of over 5000 fields is time consuming and tedious.
Usage Issues
On some safelists the sponsor ad countdown timer does not display in Brave but works OK in Chrome. Countdown timer did work on Daily Bonus.
Some Banners in the member area do not display in Brave but are OK in Chrome.
Most banners and buttons do not display in /members/banneradvertising.php in Brave but are OK in Chrome.
When solos/credit mails do frame-breaker check, banners do not display in Brave
Surfing - most banners in header do not display in Brave
Personal Builder - banner does display in Brave but is OK in Chrome.
Speed
Ads claim that Brave is 3x faster than Chrome - not seeing it
I will continue to try other sites on different versions of the scripts.
It is my recommendation NOT to use Brave for safelist advertising.
Rich Moyer
