I had used Google Chrome for the longest time in my life mostly because it's what people around me used and I had used Google Drive for all of my work and education, so it seemed like the logical browser to use. However, I finally decided to switch a couple months ago.
Firefox vs Brave
When I was switching browsers I was mainly between Firefox and BRAVE just because those two were the largest privacy browsers I'd ever heard of. My personal opinion of Firefox is that it's design is better than Brave's design simply because it looks really sleek whereas Brave just looks like any other Chromium based browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. And Firefox actually has some features that Brave does not such as a free built in VPN (the free version only makes browser traffic private, not anything on the rest of the device, there's a paid for version for that feature). However, Brave seemed like the more "fun" choice because the browser integrates crypto really seamlessly and you can earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) simply by browsing the web.
Other Browsers
There are some other cool browsers out there such as Opera which almost feels like an operating system in and of itself because you can access Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. with just a click of a button. It also has a free built-in VPN (only makes browser traffic private just like Firefox). And it has it's own messaging platform. I've heard of the browser called Vivaldi as well which I believe is also privacy-centric. There's also obviously Microsoft's Edge browser and Apple's Safari browser.
Business Strategies
I'll do a deeper dive into each browser's business model in individual blog posts in the future, but this is my current understanding of their business models from what I've gathered from reading articles in the past. Google Chrome's business strategy is 1) collecting your data and giving you targeted ads off of that data 2) driving you to use Google which can collect more of your data and give you targeted ads off that data. Microsoft Edge's strategy is probably somewhat similar except instead of driving you to Google they drive you to Bing. Apple Safari's business plan is simply to give you a good Apple browser to use that probably doesn't collect as much data as Google or Bing although they are paid a lot by Google to keep that as the default search engine. Firefox is a non profit I believe and makes money from search deals. All the other small browsers such as Opera and Vivaldi get paid by search engines every time a search is made and by companies that are default bookmarks on the browsers. Brave is different. It might currently get paid by Google to make that the default search engine, but it tries to be very search engine agnostic. On the mobile app, whenever you're searching something all you have to do is click one of the search engine logos and it'll search in that search engine whether it be DuckDuckGo, Bing, Google, Qwant, StartPage, etc. Now, Brave has developed its own search engine Brave Search (I'll do a post about that later more in depth) that it'll likely make the default search engine in the future. This search engine is private and may end up being supported by BAT. Brave's other main source of revenue is through BAT. Advertisers pay Brave to put their ads on Brave, and users of Brave browser can opt in to BAT to start receiving advertisements and the user get 70% of the BAT revenue, Brave software (the "publisher") gets the other 30%. BAT ads come in the form of OS notifications or background images. So, it's exciting to see Brave approach a different business strategy. Instead of getting all of it's revenue from Google paying to be the default search engine, it uses privacy-centric crypto-based ads as a revenue stream.
BAT
If you're not interested in crypto or earning money to browse I honestly think it's probably better to get Firefox than Brave because Firefox looks cooler has more non-crypto built-in features such as a free VPN and has been around longer. However, if you're interested in crypto and earning money while your browse, Brave is the browser for you. BAT ads honestly aren't even a nuisance. A couple times an hour you'll get a background image on the homepage of your browser and you'll get OS notifications. Most of the ads are about cryptocurrency related topics so it's a fun way to keep up with what's going on in the space. And occasionally other brands advertise as well which is good to see the advertisement platform diversify. For example last week Crocs did a number of ads on Brave which was fun.
Decentralized & Privacy Integrations
Brave also has it's own Crypto wallet and DEX you can use. You can open a private browser using Tor through Brave (although it's technically not as secure as just using the Tor browser itself), and there's IPFS and unstoppable domains integration in the Brave browser.
Learn More
https://brave.com/
https://basicattentiontoken.org/
https://www.tomsguide.com/features/firefox-vpn
https://forums.opera.com/topic/38516/does-opera-vpn-protect-all-computer-activity-or-only-connections-made-within-opera-browser
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/02/browser-maker-opera-has-filed-to-go-public/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD_snmuxan96tklchqCvH6rlfneMOLt96-6ECD3yH0izY7XaJVE_rwflIqUUE94Tc2K2H225BNxn4Y2QhNU-owy3_9ZfvPIVI690s5bXLRCFxHHz2LswoH5PZFW7Yft8LwBItxTWCP-SvvFZRSFJkhGWFyeOkDBK1-vwdKKfQfrF
https://vivaldi.com/blog/vivaldi-business-model/
https://fourweekmba.com/how-does-mozilla-make-money/
https://searchengineland.com/report-google-to-pay-apple-9-billion-to-remain-default-search-engine-on-safari-306082
