Updated my ranking of browsers, added Arc since I’ve now used it for a decent amount of time. A few notes:
I’m ranking them based on the Windows versions of each browser, I’ve tried them all on my current machine running Windows 11.
I’ve tried other niche browsers like Ungoogled Chromium, LibreWolf, Zen Browser, etc. However, I’m keeping it to the most “mainstream” browsers. I added Tor Browser since it’s less a Firefox fork but a uniquely set up browser for a specific use case.
I have more pros for my best browsers and more cons for my worst browsers but wanted to keep it to the biggest ones.
Okay that's it here's the list:
comments
Brave has a myriad of crypto features baked in (aka web3 features). They have their own crypto token called BAT which they try to push to the user as well as a crypto wallet which is on by default, it’s annoying, and I wish they were off by default.
Brave was caught a few years ago of hijacking URLs you typed into the URL bar and changing them to affiliate links that made the Brave company money. This was done without the users’ knowledge. An example was if you typed Binance.us into the URL bar, Brave sneakily attaches an affiliate link when you hit enter. Personally, for me, I find a browser sneakily modifying links I type in without my knowledge dodgy, especially one that harps on about privacy. More info here: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2020/06/06/the-brave-web-browser-is-hijacking-links-and-inserting-affiliate-codes/
what’s web3?
web3 is a catchall term for a new iteration of the internet that incorpoates decentralisation and mostly Blockchain technology like cryptocurrencies. Most people use it to refer to Blockchain and crypto stuff generally. Wikipedia describes it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web3
oh God that sounds horrible