Hi Brave community,
This is my feedback on the brave browser for windows.
First the set-up:
I think it might be handy to expand and improve the “welcome tour” a bit.
- I think it will be nice for new users to have some basic setup where you can manage your privacy level or something.
- Showing a checkbox with the question if you want to send complete private product analytics or not. (right now, you must go to settings to change that value)
- Adding a page to enable sync
For enabling rewards, it might be handy to have some changes. For example:
- Disable brave ads by default. I find it very intrusive that brave enables notification ads when I create a wallet reward address. This is the reason why my dad uninstalled it, and got back to google chrome.
When going to brave://settings/, I got the following suggestions:
- Make the search bar better visible, and easier to use. (add autofocus when typing) (the fewer clicks, the more effective)
- Make a new settings page layout. It is hard to find some options because there are so many things you can change. Look for example for the settings page of Firefox, it is well structured, and well thought out. Settings are easy to find.
- Move settings that are not often being changed to the advanced tab, making it more organised by hiding not much used settings under the advanced tab.
When I download a file, I got the following suggesions for the download bar on the bottom of the browser:
- Remake the download bar layout. It can be much more organized.
- Add a “Copy Download link” option for each downloaded file in the context menu.
When scrolling on pages:
- Please add/improve the smooth scrolling function. Scrolling on pages is harsh, adding a more fluent scroll might improve the web experience a lot.
For the content blocker:
- Add an option to manage cookie walls more easily. When I browse on the web, I get annoyed about all the cookie bars/cookie walls. If accepting the rules of cookie bars/cookie walls can be automated it might be very helpful.
- Add an option to report ads that are not being blocked.
- Extend fingerprint blocking, so that there is no identifying information being leaked. (Check using https://panopticlick.eff.org/)
- Block all acceptable ads/tracking by default, add a opt-in checkbox to show acceptable ads. (I do not really understand why ads on google are being seen as “acceptable ads”)
For the browser context menu:
- Please rearrange the options herein.
- Take a look how the context menu of Firefox looks like, it is beautifully structured, and everything is easy to find. That is absolutely not the case for Google chrome (and Brave).
- Add sidebar to access and edit bookmarks more easily.
For new tab page
- Make it possible to create more cards, (widgets).
- Make the new tab page layout more flexible and informative. (like weather gadgets, etc)
- Add an option to select your own background images.
Feedback for the general interface:
Add next to the Rewards button:
- A button to manage and set up your sync.
- A button to manage your Crypto wallets (if in use).
Upgrades for account security:
- Add a option to encrypt all stored passwords with a master password.
- Add a option to generate a random password for a website.
- Add a option for generating codes for 2 factor authentication.
- Add a option to check for compromised passwords (without the passwords leaving the device)
My opinion about do-not-track requests:
- I think that sending a “do-not track request” should be disabled and removed in the near future in from all browsers. When activated, there is absolutely no guaranty that the websites will respect that request. And it will more probably be used as a fingerprint to identify the person behind that certain browser when activated, since the do not track feature is often disabled in most browsers.
That makes do-not-track outdated, and it has, in my opinion, no benefits at all.
Brave Version(1.14.65):
I hope there are some things that will be (partially) used.
If brave could be more productive, better structured and more flexible, it will make my day.
Regards
Dave