[the_duke]

Google is often dismissively called an ad company.

Why is that? Because most of their revenue is from ads.

How does Brave make money? With ads.

Privacy-centric positioning makes sense to capture a part of the market. But the mis-aligned incentives are there for Brave just as much as they are for Google.

Are they better right now than Google? Probably. Is it smart to trust a company that only makes money with ads with control over your browsing experience in the medium term? Not so much.

It's quite amusing to me how well their marketing works.

What we need is a browser that can exist as a viable business without being chained to ad revenue.

[jqpabc123]

But the mis-aligned incentives are there for Brave just as much as they are for Google.

No they are not.

Brave exists as a privacy-centric alternative. If they start violating user privacy, it would remove all incentive to use their product. There would be no reason for Brave to exist. It would be marketplace suicide.

Google exists as a privacy destroying organization. They can't hide this fact and they have never really tried to. And they can't stop now because their reason to exist would likewise be gone.

[gundmc]

Same exact thing applies to duck duck go.

[colordrops]

I would use Google if they didn't consistently behave poorly and provide a poor privacy. I did use them for a long time. I'm not opposed to ads. I'm opposed to their behavior. Once Brave starts behaving poorly I'll stop using it.

[darinf]

Check out Neeva. Ad free search. We have an iOS browser at the moment and desktop browser extensions. Both apply tracking protections.

Disclaimer: I work for Neeva :)

[jqpabc123]

I wish you all the luck in the world with your search engine. But I can't help but think you may have missed the mark with your business model.

What people (myself included) seem to really object to most are privacy invading personalized ads. These don't just provide benign info, they are actively taking something that belongs to you --- your privacy.

The more benign alternative is context sensitive ads --- ads based on the topic at hand. If I search for "pet supplies", I can tolerate and maybe even appreciate a few ads for dog food and flea collars. This might be distracting for cat owners but this is something I think most would be willing to accept in exchange for the "free" service.

DuckDuckGo seems to be growing very nicely with context sensitive ads.

[xg15]

So what is your business model?

[JoiDegn]

Senator, they take a subscription fee.

[waffle_maniac]

> But the mis-aligned incentives are there for Brave just as much as they are for Google.

Machine learning is local; can't be evil. They are committed to not going public. I suggest doing some more research before making assumptions.