Brave Introduces Privacy-Focused News Reader
- Titled Brave Today, the news reader will utilize the company’s new private Content Delivery Network, which protects users browsing activities from being recorded.
- The service will also provide users with exclusive discounts and offers from Brave’s affiliate partners, including Ledger, Amazon, and Coinbase.
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Blockchain-based web browser Brave is introducing a news reader with version 1.18 — for both iOS and desktop — designed to protect user privacy, the firm said in a press release on 10 December.
Titled Brave Today, and available on the new tab page by scrolling down, the reader is designed to deliver personalized news feed “anonymously to the user’s browser”, without leaving a data trail for ISPs and third parties to track or collect. The feature utilizes Brave’s new private Content Delivery Network (CDN) — also unveiled on Thursday — which is designed to separate a user’s IP address from the requested content, preserving their privacy.
Unlike Google News, Brave Today enables publishers to maintain their relationship with the reader by fetching data directly from the source of the content, instead forcing the user through a redirect. The service will also deliver personalized content by using data that never leaves the browser, with the integrated algorithm choosing articles based on the user’s selected categories, publishing date, and browser history. The reader currently has 15 different categories, including global news, business and finance, sports, fashion, food, lifestyle, tech and crypto.
The company also revealed two new commercial offerings that will support the Brave Today news reader. Brave Offers will be connected to Brave Today’s feed, and provide users with exclusive discounts and offers from Brave’s affiliate partners, including Ledger, Amazon, and Coinbase. Promoted Content, on the other hand, will let brands and media partners promote content on Brave Today. These two offerings will not hurt Brave Today’s privacy, since all content from RSS feeds will go through the private CDN.
More and more users have been choosing Brave over traditional web browsers, mainly because of its privacy features and unique usage of BAT tokens to support content creators. Last month, the firm revealed its browser had surpassed 20 million monthly active users and 7 million daily active users; it also became the number one rated browser on Google Play.
- The browser surpassed 12.5 million daily active users.
- Its privacy-preserving ad platform saw its revenue increase 14x in the past 18 months.
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- Brave Search is built on top of a completely independent index and will not track users or their searches.
- The search engine has arrived just three months after Brave’s acquisition of the open search engine Tailcat.
- Brave’s support for .crypto domains was enabled through an integration with domain name provider Unstoppable Domains.
- Both Android and desktop Brave users will now have access to more than 30,000 decentralized sites and over 700,000 blockchain domain names.