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Comment by JoshMnem | Hacker News Reader

From what I've read, Brave doesn't block ads -- it replaces them with other ads. I don't think that it's a good idea.

Firefox for Android also allows browser extensions, which gives some control of the software back to the user.

Except that it does actually block ads and doesn't replace them. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet when you can just try the product :)

Except it does. It has the functionality to do BOTH.

The tagline of giving the option to either disable ads or replace ads is to provide a way to enjoy an ad-free experience or to receive only optimized advertisements.

A big reason some users dislike ads isn't because of their entire existance but rather their tendency as of late to be malware-ridden or cause drops in webpage performance. These are the things that cause some users to enable ad-blockers, and Brave is the only way I've heard of that has pushed the envelope of a BETTER ad experience.

From their blog, the first is a great introduction to what Brave is about[1], as well as their response to an attack on their ad-replacement ideology[2].

[1]:https://www.brave.com/how-brave-works-for-you/

[2]:https://www.brave.com/braves-response-to-the-naa-a-better-de...

Also a quote directly from Brave:

    [The user interface] shows the major choices that Brave enables:

    You’re game to try our default mode of operation, for a better ad-supported Web. Just leave the Replace Ads item checked. This is the default mode of operation. We insert ads after blocking without hurting page load speed, and those ads will support the sites you browse. We choose ads based on browser-private user data with no remote tracking — not even by our servers.

    You want to block all ads and trackers, but you’re not sure about our plan to insert better ads with high performance and privacy. You can do this with Brave by checking Block Ads. We want you on board even if you’re just blocking everything.

    You’d like to try Brave without ad blocking or replacing, to get whatever ads and trackers you would experience in other browsers. Check Allow Ads and Tracking. We still protect you with HTTPS Everywhere and other defense by default.

>A big reason some users dislike ads isn't because of their entire existance but rather their tendency as of late to be malware-ridden or cause drops in webpage performance. These are the things that cause some users to enable ad-blockers, and Brave is the only way I've heard of that has pushed the envelope of a BETTER ad experience.

AdBlock Plus also does something equivalent through their default option to show "Unobtrusive ads."

The problem with AdBlock Plus is that, as far as I can tell, the way to get on their "unobtrusive ads" list isn't to actually be "unobtrusive" to any meaningful standard, it's to pay them to qualify you as unobtrusive.

That's not my experience with ABP. So far I haven't found any actually obtrusive ads and as far as I am concerned, they are holding up a good standard.

That doesn't have anything to do with experience, that's just a fact. Advertisers pay ABP to get on the list.

Yeah but that doesn't change the fact about the requirements to even be able to pay to get on the list.

It's a trust issue in summary. You either trust them to do a good job at screening or not.

IIRC, you pay them (not a lot) to check out your ads and verify that they are, in fact, unobtrusive. I realize it's distasteful that money changes hands at all, but I can imagine it takes a non-trivial amount of person-hours to vet these things on a large scale, and it should be easy enough to tell if they're crooked or not just by using ABP and seeing if the permitted ads are intrusive.

When I used it (until after their ad whitelisting came in), I found that they did a poor job of blocking obtrusive ads, then. Either that, or their standards for "unobtrusive" were low.

I switched to a better adblocker, so now I just whitelist sites whose ads I'm willing to see.

> Don't believe everything you read on the Internet when you can just try the product

I read about it on their own website:

https://www.brave.com/about-ad-replacement/

"Brave’s goal is to speed up the web, stop bad ads and pay publishers. One of the ways we plan to accomplish this is with ad replacements."

"Step Two: Brave Replaces Ads"

I'm using Brave on Android and it does block ads, here is the ad block engine they use: https://github.com/brave/ad-block. The replacing of ads thing isn't implemented yet, and I expect that it can be turned off when that feature has landed, like the Brave payments thing that is currently opt-in on the desktop version: https://www.brave.com/publishers/.

I was not aware of it - thx for info. A bit strange indeed.

Link for the other if interested: https://www.brave.com/about-ad-replacement/

Edit: from the link content, I understand they actually backtracked from this proposal after a backlash from publishers.

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