2y ago

Brave's aggressive marketing

Was reading an answer to the question about fresh Amazon tablet and saw this. They used up the question as a hook to promote their browser. Pretty sure I'm avoiding Brave from now on.

Q: Does the fire max 11 have YouTube app on it. A: I have installed Google Playstore , but I skip installing Youtube app . There is better option . Brave Browser in Playstore !! That thing has AWESOME popup Blocker and it's own integrated Youtube Ads and other Nuisances blocker . My point ? You don't need youtube on Fire max , You don't need Google Maps , You don't need Facebook App . Just Use Brave .

119 comments

I really doubt that is marketing. I just think that’s an over-enthusiastic user.
- Wait till you hear about revanced
  Edit: fixed spelling
- Idk, sound like a paid comment to me.
  
  Brave and Opera GX both have lots of fanboys
  
  It's not even a comment, it's an answer to an Q&A on amazon, I'm sure there are more efficient ways to advertise a browser.
  
  You're paranoid, mate
  
  I shill brave on iOS regularly as a way to get past ads on mobile and watch with background playback. But that’s more because of how much I hate ads than any loyalty to brave. I highly doubt they’re paying for the kind of low quality shilling this guy is doing on Amazon. If they are, they can start paying me as well!
  
  Do you really think that amazon questions is a place ada would be put into? Not for something sold on Amazon mind you, but a browser!
  
  Perhaps you sound like a FireFox or otherwise Anti-Brave shill
  
  I could have written that if I wrote like I was 14. Definitely out here shilling brave. Try it out if you haven’t.
  
  You're insane.
- I'm honestly a bit surprised their comment doesn't contain the user's affiliate links. "Over-enthusiastic" users used to spam theirs everywhere.

I really don't understand why people use and recommend brave. They've have had plenty of shady practices in the past and bundle crypto crap by default. If you want to block ads just install ublock origin on (preferably) any privacy respecting browser like firefox (or better yet librewolf), ungoogled-chromium etc
- They just don't know any better. And when you tell them about Brave's history, they just don't listen
  
  This is the first time I heard about this. Was using it in the past on iOS, but I’m now using an extension in safari to block ads. What exactly is wrong with Brave?
  
  It's more that do far I haven't seen anything wrong with the browser itself.
  
  Can you expand at all? I don't have a dog in the fight.
- Yeah I tried it on mobile and it peppered me with requests/pop-ups to get their paid services.. Install didn't last long
- Firefox runs really poorly for twitch and youtube videos for me in linux; mainly in CPU. Brave will use maybe 10-20% of my cpu for a single twitch stream whereas firefox uses about 80%. I use firefox for all my browsing, but for videos it just doesn't seem to work well... Perhaps a different chromium browser would be better as you say.
  
  Sounds like your Firefox is not using hardware acceleration for displaying videos. It does support it, but whether it will be enabled on Linux depends on a bunch of factors (distro/packages installed, cpu/gpu vendor/drivers, some weird settings etc etc)
- The situation on mobile is dire. Bromite and Ungoogled-Chromium are dead, and mobile Firefox is slow crap that Mozilla doesn't give two fucks about. I'm grinding my teeth using IceRaven and Mulch, but I'm not surprised those with less patience would use an all-in-one solution.
  
  Mobile firefox on ios has been way better than almost everything else, atleast compared to like brave and chrome etc
  Maybe its being neglected on android? Im on the latest version and ios 17 dev beta
- I have had compatibility issues with firefox
  Somepages straight up dont work
  
  Dev tools are broken on my side. Nothing displays in that panel
- Honestly? Firefox on android sucks and unless you're getting a fork like Mull on f-droid, the default Firefox on on the Playstore is really bad for privacy too. Brave just covers all the bases on Android and there isn't much to complain about.
  
  I've been using using firefox and more recently fennec and mull on android for years now and I've never had a problem with it. Why do you think it sucks? Just the fact that you can install extensions on firefox (or fennec or mull) makes it by far the best browser in my opinion. I do agree that firefox by default has some privacy issues but there's no way it's worse than chrome which almost everyone uses, and as you said you can just use a fork like mull for best privacy.

Brave sucks. Firefox + uBlock Origin is superior.
Yes I'm a Firefox Supremacist.
- Wait untill OP says you are paid by mozilla
  
  So then he's partially paid by me!
  Link for compatibility
  ^Yes. ^Making ^this ^joke ^inspired ^me ^to ^donate, ^at ^least ^something.
- Firefox on tablets is terrible due to the removal of the tablet layout. I use Kiwi browser with ublock instead.
- "Firefox macht Frei"
  
  You ok?

Gentle reminder that Brave's CEO is a known bigot and the browser is just chrome with a few extensions and fresh coat of paint.
- You're selling them short. They also developed some crypto shit to shoehorn into it.
- Isn't he a Blockchain/crypto grifter as well?
- I, an intellectual, use typescript.

Maybe, but there are LOT of weirdly aggressive Brave fanboys out there that would probably say shit like this without getting paid. Not sure how they convinced people that they were so great. Brave is a decent browser but it has a sketchy history, just like the people behind it. Would definitely recommend staying away.

Have to agree with others that this looks like an episode of FanboysGoneWild, but there are reasons to question, if not outright ceasing to use Brave and they center around their CEO, Brendan Eich. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/business/brave-brendan-eich-covid-19.html
- Sure, I disagree with him regarding social issues, but how is questioning unscientific and inconsistent "health measures" and the proven liar who is their spokesperson right wing? To use the bird metaphor, is it flying upside down? Is that why things that are actually left wing (progressivism, skepticism, political accountability) called right wing and things that are actually right wing (authoritarianism, religious devotion to the state, feelings mattering more than reality) called left wing? Is it Opposite Day?
  
  “Proven liar”
  can’t prove it

Look ! Firefox marketing ! Gotta boycott them !
- All those wonderful people are all just passionate firefox users, and you could be one too! All have have to do is get firefox! Please get firefox, it's great! You should totally get firefox!
- It's important to note that Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization, whereas Brave Software Inc. is a company that sells products. Mozilla get money from recurrent donations, while Brave gets more money the more users use their software and services, like any other company. Which means that only Brave has interest in hiring shills. And a fucking meme posted on a niche social network is different than a fake review, ffs.

I mean, there are plenty of reasons not to use Brave but this poorly-written, obviously-not-a-paid-review doesn't really rank up there.

I don't know what marketing campaign you think is going to tell a normal non-tech literate user to install not only a third party app store which they'd have to sideload through a complicated process, but also do so in the reviews section for a random product instead of just paying the 1/10th of a cent it takes to run an ad somewhere relevant. This post is legitimately so poorly thought out it frustrates me. Go get yourself evaluated for anxiety if you feel this distrustful of the world, my word it's insane.
- Your claim about OP's insanity has been accepted and will be reviewed in 5 to 10 business days. Stand by.

That is some really aggressive marketing.
- This is not marketing. This is people trying to destroy Brave's reputation. This kind of stuff isn't even effective, so Brave wouldn't do that

Never quite understood the will for people to put so much reliance on the endpoint to filter things, at least if your talking about a device bot likely to leave home on any regular basis. It just makes it difficult to maintain cocnsistent results if you have to configure everything individually. A network level firewall + DNS filter of choice can cover a good amount of the problems of these type of things aim to resolve for everyone on the network, even if you don't get into the extreme ends of things.

Is this post paid marketing for Brave browser?

tbh one only uses the youtube app if they're either ignorant or desperate
- Meh, I pay for YouTube Premium since it's included in YouTube Music, and I feel good knowing that creators I watch get more from me than they would if I enabled ads just on their channels.
- The only way I use Youtube is when I click on a link from an external source. I don't think it's possible to change the handler to Newpipe in Android unless mistaken.
  
  You can in fact change the handler to NewPipe! Navigate in your settings to wherever your screen is that shows you a list of all your apps. Navigate to YouTube (assuming you have that installed, skip this step if you don't have it installed), and find the "Open by default" option (might be named differently depending on your Android provider), and disallow the option to open supported links. Now go back to your apps list and find whatever NewPipe application you use (I use the Sponsorblock fork for instance), click the "Open by default" option again, make sure it's enabled, then there should be a list of links supported. For the types of links you want supported, make sure they have a check box by it, and you should be good!
  
  I'm on GrapheneOS (not OEM Android), so I'm not 100% certain, but I think you can. Try this:
  Hold the NewPipe icon until you get the App info icon
  In the app settings, look for Open by default
  Toggle the option Open supported links
  Select all the verified link options
  
  I'd love to be able to set revanced as default.
  
  I have the similar problem using LibreTube, but I can copy the URL and paste it into LT's search box and it works.
- I feel attacked.
- Or they pay for YT Premium. I watch YouTube in multiple places on various devices. There's no real solution that works very easily for me, particularly with watching it on TV.
- What is wrong with the app?
- I'll agree with that lol. Although I do pay for a YouTube premium, I like YT.music algorithm better than Spotify and not having ads on videos is just a nice bonus. So I do use yt app, as well as newpipe and smarttubenext because yt app is missing some features.
- I think the YouTube app is really nice with revanced patches applied. What am I ignorant of?

People realising apps are just websites in wrappers.
Vele apps hebben geen bestaansrecht, maar op een bepaald moment in het verleden zijn ontwikkelaars hun websites toch als apps gaan beginnen verpakken.

Wolves howling

It replaces Facebook AND has integrated youtube ads? I'm there

I use Brave and Nord VPN. Am I going to die?
- Yes, anonymously.

Former brave fanboy here. This company is a fucking plague and they should be on trial for misleading their users.
Absolute scam -severalbillion/10

Brave is a shit company, but I'd still take it over Google if those were the only two choices available. So yes even if it's an ad... It's not wrong.
- If only there were better options...

119 comments