WHICH BROWSER SHOULD YOU USE INSTEAD?
Brave
https://brave.com
What we like
Although Brave is based on the same Chromium code as Chrome and Edge, and has a familiar, easy-to-use interface, in other ways it couldn’t be more different – in that it has none of their flaws. Brave automatically blocks ads, doesn’t spy on your browsing history and regularly adds useful features without sacrificing speed. In fact, Brave loads pages with impressive speed and filters unnecessary elements to give you a cleaner, smoother browsing experience.
Its powerful Shields system includes an ad and tracker blocker, which can be boosted with additional filter lists, as well as options for blocking harmful scripts, fingerprinting (which lets websites identify you), social-media widgets and either all cookies or only those that follow you. It also blocks Google’s controversial new FLOC tracking system (see page 52).
We love that Brave’s New Tab page ‘dashboard’ displays the number of trackers and ads ( 1 in our screenshot below) it has blocked so far, as well as the amount of bandwidth 2 and time 3 it has saved you. If you have problems loading a website, you can switch shields on or off, or tweak their settings, by clicking the lion logo at the right of your address bar 4 .
Brave’s private mode goes much further than Chrome’s and Edge’s by offering anonymous web access through the Tor network. This not only conceals your browsing history, but also hides your location from the sites you visit by routing your connection through several servers, so that nobody can see where you are or what you do. Simply press Alt+shift+n to open a private Tor window or click the top-right menu button and choose ‘New private window with Tor’.
Even in standard browsing mode, Brave automatically switches to the HTTPS encrypted versions of websites (see box on page 57 for more on this), while a recent update adds the new Brave Search search engine ( https://brave.com/search). Similar to Duckduckgo (which Brave uses in Tor mode), this lets you search the web without being tracked or targeted by advertisers.
Switch to Brave Search by rightclicking the address/search bar and choosing ‘Manage search engines’. In the middle of the page that appears, click the three dots to the right of Brave and select ‘Make default’ (see screenshot at the top of page 55).
We should point out that, although Brave does a brilliant job of blocking ads – especially on Youtube – it also has its own opt-in advertising system called Brave Rewards. Unlike FLOC in Chrome, this isn’t a means of making money from your personal data, but lets you support your favourite websites and content
creators by giving them tokens you earn by viewing ‘privacy-respecting ads’. Brave Rewards is disabled by default and ignoring it won’t affect how the browser works.
What we don’t like
Brave’s New Tab dashboard contains some elements we could do without, including ‘cards’ showing your Brave Rewards balance and cryptocurrency information. Happily, these are easy to remove – just click the three-dot button to the right of the Brave Rewards heading and choose ‘Hide [card]’. Further down the page, there’s a Brave News widget that shows ad-supported news stories - click ‘No thanks’ to remove this. Also, if you don’t want to see sponsored images on your dashboard, click Customize and deselect that option.
Vivaldi https://vivaldi.com
What we like
Vivaldi is a much more innovative and customisable browser than Chrome or Edge. Although it’s not as privacy-focused as Brave, it doesn’t collect or share your data, and offers reliable tracker and ad blocking; to activate this, click the ‘V’ menu button, choose Settings, then Privacy and select ‘Block Trackers and Ads’.
Where Vivaldi trumps every other browser is in its huge choice of features, which saves you installing potentially dodgy extensions from the Chrome Web Store. The latest version, Vivaldi 4, introduces several major new tools, including an email client called Vivaldi Mail, which lets you manage messages from Gmail, Outlook and other mail accounts in a single inbox.
Also new is Vivaldi Feed Reader, which lets you subscribe to RSS feeds
(a feature long dropped from other browsers) and read them in Vivaldi Mail (see screenshot below); and Vivaldi Translate, a private alternative to Google Translate that translates whole web pages without storing or sharing the details.
We like that when you install or update to Vivaldi 4, you can choose between Essentials, Classic and Fully Loaded modes, depending on the features you need. If you want Mail, Calendar and Feeds, choose Fully Loaded (see screenshot above right) and click Add Mail Account to get started.
Other notable tools include stacking and tiling tabs, to easily manage multiple pages; the ability to control the browser using mouse gestures; a built-in screencapture tool; thumbnail previews of tab contents; a choice of stylish themes; syncing of your bookmarks, passwords and settings across devices, and much more.
What we don’t like
Vivaldi comes with several bookmarks and Start Page tiles installed, for companies including Amazon, ebay, Youtube and Booking.com, which you need to remove if you don’t want them. Deleting them is easy – just click the horizontal line at the right of each box. Another box will take its place, which you can also delete in turn until they’ve all gone. You can then add your own sites to this page by clicking the ‘Add New Speed Dial’ box and typing the URL
Its interface is more like Opera than Chrome or Brave, which takes a little getting used to, but the browser’s tidily organised Settings section, handy side panels, comprehensive support pages ( https://help.vivaldi.com) and friendly community ( https://forum.vivaldi.net) help to flatten the learning curve.