344 points

Yeah but Brave? Why not Firefox or Vivaldi.

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237 points

Forgive them. They aren’t used to choosing their browser yet.

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80 points

They’re Apple users. They aren’t used to making any decisions when it comes to how their phones work

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12 points

I’d defend myself, but I work in digital marketing so I’m not going to dissuade anyone from using AdWords… I mean Android.

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1 point

Don’t lump us all in with them, Safari with Adblock extensions on mobile, Firefox everywhere else

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-5 points

We don’t have to, cuz they work 😉

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7 points

Ok you get a free pass, make sure it doesn’t happen again :)

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94 points
*

Well the Brave Twitter account is likely a bit biased toward the Brave browser. 🙂

I’m sure the others were impacted too.

Edit: Firefox installs jumped 50%.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/13/24100066/firefox-saw-an-increase-in-users-following-apples-default-browser-changes-in-the-eu

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40 points
*

Vivaldi is a proprietary rebranding of Chromium. Can’t say I’d recommend it over (or in addition to) Firefox.

We need less forks of Chromium. Any one company (Google in this case) having total control over browser engines is dangerous, and is a big reason why the whole Apple/Safari/Webkit situation is such a big deal to begin with.

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33 points

Remember kids, if it’s Chromium based, it’s still part of the problem. The Chromium project only exists to provide the illusion of choice. Don’t let Google have the power to dictate web standards at will.

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15 points

The worrisome thing is that there’s no alternative other than Firefox, or Safari on Apple platforms. Every single other browser is Chromium.

We must defend Firefox at all costs, it’s the last glimmer of freedom.

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-1 points

True but if you use Vivaldi and then you try to go back to Firefox, it’s like going back in the early 2000s. I always say this, Firefox should have been like Vivaldi. Super customizable and packed with features. Instead you have to rely on extensions and thus put your trust in the creator of said extension that they will not sell it. Heck even with extensions, trying to mimic the new tab page from Vivaldi is a masterclass in patience.

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14 points

Firefox +50% in Germany, +30% in France

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12 points

Vivaldi is my go to browser. Brave does a better job with blocking ads. I’m switching to Brave whenever I need to stream something on a site loaded with ads, or when YouTube manages to detect my Adblock for a few days.

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20 points

Not like uBlock Origin is a thing?
Can it really get better than that and consent-o-matic?

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0 points

I am using uBlock Origin on my Vivaldi. It doesn’t block everything.

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-13 points
*

“This Other Browser is just as good as Brave*!”

*if you install x, y, and z and uninstall a and b

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9 points
*
Deleted by creator
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1 point

I guess it does have a built in dark mode

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11 points

Still better than Edge or Chrome

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7 points

as someone said, its randomised, and I’m sure that other browsers also saw more downloads

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2 points
Deleted by creator
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2 points

Vivaldi is extremely slow on IOS and 2gb+ big. Firefox has no extensions so no Adblock. Generally there are few privacy friendly/Foss browsers on IOS.

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9 points

Firefox has no extensions so no Adblock.

That’s because so far every browser on iOS had to use WebKit as it’s HTML rendering engine, meaning that even if you installed another browser manually you were basically still using Safari under the hood. IIRC the new DMA rules include allowing other browser engines like Gecko, so Mozilla is probably already working on making addons available. I mean they are available on Android, so why wouldn’t they make them available on iOS now that they finally can?

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4 points
*

I wouldn’t be sure because of how stupid Apples compliance is. But if they do I would definitely switch. I guess it’s just going to be Firefox focus until then.

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1 point

You can get one but not the other. Orion has been pretty solid for me, has all the lovey iOS integration so the happy chemicals Apple spent R&D on does it’s magic while blocking all sorts of things, but it’s closed source :/

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1 point
*

Generally there are few privacy friendly/Foss browsers on IOS.

Um, Safari is so privacy friendly that Google regularly asks me if I’m human. For example it has “private relay” which is similar to TOR* so trackers don’t even know your IP address — combine that with blocking third party cookies (and even some first party cookies) by default and providing false data to fight fingerprinting even if you don’t block trackers entirely - and blocking them entirely is as simple as installing an extension. Private Relay also adds a layer of encryption on top of DNS queries and otherwise unencrypted http traffic… so your ISP/Cellular provider/Work/School/abusive husband/etc can’t track you

99.99% of the Safari’s code is FOSS — dual licensed under LGPL and BSD.

It’s not the browser I use - pretty lacking in the feature department, but it’s definitely more pro-privacy than Brave or FireFox. I’ve never had to jump through a captcha to use Google in those browsers.

(* if anything, it’s better than TOR… with that service there’s a risk your entry/exit nodes are tracking you. With Private Relay it’s always one of Apple’s servers for the entry node and a reputable cloud company like Akamai for the exit node. Both would have to be compromised in order to identify you… maybe a nation state can do that, but a big data tracking company definitely can’t)

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7 points
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Private relay is more like a VPN than tor.

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5 points

I mean they did say few. Generally speaking, every browser is basically safari (WebKit) on iOS and apple doesn’t allow support for 3rd party browser extensions (least natively, Orion supports this somehow). So you’re already limited in that regard. If you don’t use safari , a browser like FF + VPN is IMO a better experience. You also have the option of just using wireguard and controlling your traffic at home/VPS if you’re into that.

WebKit might be open source but the browser deployed by apple is not. That’s like saying chrome is open source. They both use open source engines.

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4 points
*

Man imagine being so far up apples butt that you actually think Safari is safer than tor

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2 points

it’s definitely more pro-privacy than Brave or FireFox. I’ve never had to jump through a captcha to use Google in those browsers.

You have this backwards. Google showing you captchas is basically them saying they can’t match your browser to any know (shadow) profile they have already stored. So they aren’t sure you are a human and if so which one specifically. Getting harassed with a captcha is essentially like a badge of honour for your browsers privacy settings.

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0 points

Vivaldi is proprietary bullcrap. I don’t know why people keep sucking their dick

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-11 points

Because it blocks ads out of the box. I know its new tab screen causes a lot of y’all’s buttholes to clench because it mentions cryptocurrency, but there are harder things to ignore

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7 points

Careful, if you try to advocate or defend Brave on Lemmy, you’re stepping on a minefield.

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1 point
*

Idk if I would advocate for or defend it, but I find mobile ads especially abhorrent cuz they take up more relative space on the screen and my upload speed isn’t good enough to be VPNing through my pihole anytime I’m outside the house

iOS browsers are just skins for Safari anyways, and Brave addresses my issue out of the box, so yeah

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-12 points

Because it’s listed as the first item on the browser choice screen for some reason, probably

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53 points

The list is randomized, I’ve seen several screenshots with different order.

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4 points

I mean it’s probably just alphabetical, but I wouldn’t know for sure.

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10 points

The second one is Edge, and Aloha Browser exists

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-15 points
*

Cause Firefox is trash and Mozilla a shell of their former selves?

Also it’s so liberating to speak your mind without caring what some scrub with his sweaty fingers on the downvote button thinks

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-37 points

firefox sucks for most people and vivaldi it’s too complicated to configure + it looks like pure bloat

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18 points

Why does it suck though? Works fine for me. Granted, I’m a software engineer, but even looking through my “end user glasses”, I don’t see anything wrong with it.

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-2 points

I wouldn’t say Firefox sucks but there are definitely some things that made me use Edge occasionally back when I used Firefox as my main browser. It was mainly stuff like a webpage that doesn’t support Firefox and extensions not having a Firefox version. Which sure aren’t problems with FireFox, it’s more a problem of it not having enough adoption, but to an end user if the thing they wanna use doesn’t work in FireFox but works in Chrome then that’s FireFox’s fault.

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-5 points

Granted, I’m a software engineer,

Lmao love how you inserted “software engineer” there like that supposed to mean something.

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2 points

I have very few issues with Firefox. I fine across a site that does not render properly maybe once every other month. I did have some resource issues with it in Windows 10 with it using too much RAM (regularly using 3-4GB) but that has been fixed since I switch to Linux.

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1 point

every site i use is slow af in librewolf (basically firefox) and also uses a lot of resources more than chromium based browsers

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1 point
Removed by mod
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251 points

For god sakes don’t use Brave. Brave has been caught doing shady shit in the past, and the CEO is a piece of shit on top of that.

Use Firefox with privacy addons.

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76 points
*
31 points
*

Vivaldi and Firefox are better choices.

PS: considering reviewing Brave again. Everyone should contribute to their source code.

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2 points

Vivaldi is the best!

Currently trying out Floorp as a Firefox fork for the possibility that Google’s disabling of adblockers in the manifest will make it impossible to use chromium browsers which is kind of good, too

But Vivaldi rules as long as chromium is an option!

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3 points

Floorp looks nice and customizable, but in terms of updates it doesn’t seem very sustainable yet.

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3 points

This is too far down.

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-7 points
*

But in iOS , addons (ublock origin) are not available at least outside EU, so brave is the better choice as it got brave shield . everywhere else I use Firefox.

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1 point

This isn’t true, Safari has that exact extension

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2 points
*

Explain please , I can’t figure out how to use ublock origin in iPad

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-8 points

Wasn’t the Brave CEO formerly the Mozilla CEO, back when Mozilla was doing a good job?

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21 points

Yes, until he was ousted for being trash as a person.

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-15 points

and Mozilla has been doing poorly since.

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-49 points

There is one issues though… Firefox is extremely slow and clunky. I hate to say it, but on mobile it is hard to use all the time for me. On desktop I’m Firefox 95% of the time but some sites don’t work very well with the much slower JavaScript engine. This isn’t to defend Brave or any chromium browser but we gotta get Firefox up to speed.

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27 points

This is on iOS. There is no Firefox (geko) or Chromium, there is only skins of Safari so your point is moot. For now.

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15 points
*

Firefox and chromium both outperform Safari in performance tests, or roughly the same depending on the setup.

It’s Safari that’s the third rate browser. No one would use that shit if it hadn’t been forced on them and if the other vendors weren’t restricted by Apple.

There’s a reason Apple stopped making Safari for other platforms. It never caught on, 'cause it sucks. Safari can’t compete without Apple kneecapping the competition. They’re like a sports team that can’t win without playing on their home turf at 10000 ft altitude where they pump in crowd noise and drug the other team’s gatorade

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1 point

Wow safari is shit. I didn’t know it was that far behind. Damn. Well, to be fair my problem is my Pixel 6 is a slow ass buggy Google nightmare product. Firefox probably works fine on a Samsung phone but then I can’t install GrapheneOS. Yet I have never bothered so… Samsung and their locked bootloader may be preferable just so Firefox has more hardware to run on lol.

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12 points

I feel like Firefox has made some really great strides on the performance front. Especially considering how bloated chrome has gotten as a comparison. But… Yeah that’s valid. I love Firefox like 99% of the time but sometimes I’m almost forced to swap to Chrome to get a site to work correctly or reliably.

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2 points

Site devs need to see the threat from browser engine monopolies too. Valve literally started pouring resources into Linux gaming just because Microsoft looked like they were trying to dominate game stores on Windows. Chromium actually dominates the web. I guess at least base chromium is open source. Still though, one of those markets is way bigger than the other and it definitely isn’t Linux gaming. (God I love Proton/WINE and how far we’ve come!)

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9 points

Firefox is fine on mobile in my eyes.

At least the Android version, even on my 5 year old Exynos phone it does what I need / want from a browser. Allows (some) extensions, lets me zoom wherever I want to on any page, has a reader mode and is snappy enough on old hardware.

Chrome tries to be / do far too much for me, just fuck off and let me browse the web. I do like the dynamic colours that Chrome on mobile uses on different webpages, is hot.

However Chrome gives me dirty Microsoft vibes, and it’s pretty hard to shake that stank.

If your on iOS welcome to the walled garden. Hope you live in the EU.

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1 point

I just have a shitty phone. Lol don’t buy a Pixel 6. (Unless you pick it up really cheap for temporary use)

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220 points

Brave is garbage. It’s a cryptoscam adscam browser based on Chrome. For the love of god, use Firefox (or Vivaldi if you absolutely need chromium)

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22 points

I can’t say I disagree, I’ve long abandoned it on my PC.

But Brave has superb AdBlocking capabilities compared to every other browser for iPhone, so I’m still using it on my phone.

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-5 points

But Brave has superb AdBlocking capabilities compared to every other browser for iPhone

It is the same on android, it even lets me watch youtube vids without ads and in the background.

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23 points

On Android you can use Firefox + uBlock Origin now

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6 points

Unfortunately brave has the best desktop layout when using Samsung DeX.

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2 points

Better than Kiwi?

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3 points
*

Oh, haven’t tried that one. I have just experienced the awful aspect ratio on Firefox.

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5 points

Brave on iOS is one of the more legitimate ways of getting an ad blocker

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22 points

Firefox has adblockers on mobile

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22 points

Firefos add-ons don’t work on iOS, I literally just googled it to ensure I was informed before writing what you wrote.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-ons-firefox-ios#:~:text=Add-ons for the desktop,%2C Mac%2C Windows and Linux

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8 points
*

Check out Orion! Firefox and Chrime add on support.

Edit: Also like Vivaldi. If you want device wide I can highly recommend NextDNS

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1 point

I’ve been using Safari + AdGuard for a while and I don’t remember seeing any ad.

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-2 points

whats wrong with chromium?

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34 points

It allows Google to continue controlling the Internet.

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-3 points
*

At least on android Firefox has Google tracking built into the app among much other tracking/ads. If you don’t like Brave you may want to consider a Firefox fork. On IOS Brave is the only big browser with competent adblock afaik until/unless Firefox gets extensions going.

Edit: I forgot criticizing Firefox is wrongthink on the fediverse and will get you donwnvoted no matter what. Even if it’s in the context of advising people to switch FROM Brave TO a Firefox fork on Android.

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3 points

On IOS Brave is the only big browser with competent adblock afaik until/unless Firefox gets extensions going.

Safari + AdGuard gave me no issues so far.

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0 points

Safari ain’t perfect but it’s leagues better than brave

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3 points

I’m not sure if fennec has it, it’s the core Firefox android build that is not published to the store.

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2 points

Fennec doesn’t have any of it (Google Analytics, Pocket, Mozilla Tracking), which is why it’s my choice of mobile browser. It’s on FDroid

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-13 points
*

Brave is great, has configurable keybinds, nice default adblock block list, vertical tabs, syncing sessions without email, etc.

And on android it can play youtube vids on the background.

The crypto ads just get disabled on the new tab page, you don’t even have to go to the settings lol. And vivaldi is partially closed source btw.

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17 points

There are crypto ads involved in the product though? Fuck that, even if it was default off

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4 points

Brave is an interesting case, they found a way to make money that doesn’t involve tracking their users, making deals with google or be closed source lol

If you hate that fine, I definitely prefer that than the other alternatives lol.

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-14 points

@AMDIsOurLord@lemmy.ml @FatCat@lemmy.world Brave may have its flaws but at least it has an offline Dino game, what does Firefox have?

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3 points

an offline breakout game

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-33 points
*

>Cryptoscam

I turned it off

>Adscam

I turned them off

>Based on chrome

Chromium

>use Firefox

No.

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14 points

Cope and Seethe

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13 points

Are you saying you don’t like Firefox because they don’t like propaganda?

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13 points
*

No.

*Links article about one of the best takes ever made by an online company

Wild

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120 points

Chart is a little misleading starting at 7% instead of zero, but still a nice surge nevertheless.

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139 points

True. Other people asked so they posted another one.

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34 points

IMO, this makes it look even worse.

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29 points

That’s why they started with the one they did

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17 points

Even then, this is still a solid 30-40% increase in downloads. That’s statistically significant right there.

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5 points
Removed by mod
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3 points

Worse, or… “better”?

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2 points

Does not look as nice, but is way less misleading

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1 point

The total numbers are so small that the shape of the line barely matters. 7-10k installs daily? In the mobile browser market? There are plant identification apps with better numbers.

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17 points

Is that 7% or 7,000 installs total? The axis isn’t labeled!!

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46 points

I see a k following the numbers, so I’m assuming that’s total number of downloads.

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23 points

Article states installs per day

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-4 points

Not even seven percent. Lol. Seven thousand which is probably like .0001 percent.

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8 points

That’s new daily installs though, so cumulative number. I don’t think they’re trying to draw a comparison, just show the increase.

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113 points

That graph is trash. The baseline needs to be at zero.

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29 points

That graph hurts my data scientist heart

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-6 points

It’s common practice to cut the y axis, did you guys not cover that in visualisation?

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8 points

Could you please clarify why the baseline needs to be at 0? I’m genuinely curious.

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33 points

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15 points

This graph gives the impression that the total installation number has been multipliés x4 or X5 while it is not the case when looking at the raw numbers.

Any variation can look impressive if you zoom enough, that’s why you need a baseline at 0. This way you see thé entire scale of the phenomenon

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2 points

This graph gives the impression that the total installation number has been multipliés x4 or X5

How so? It goes from ~7 to ~11. That’s not even x2.

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-20 points

No it doesn’t.

It’s meant to illustrate a change and it does so perfectly fine. It’s not a scientific paper.

It’s a 32-34% increase looking at the graph. That’s significant enough to shout about.

Imagine any change you could make surprising competition by 25% in any market. That’s huge.

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40 points

It’s meant to illustrate a change and it does so perfectly fine

Define “perfectly fine”. It is clearly exaggerating the change. At a glance it looks more like a 5 times increase, not a 30% increase.

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9 points

Of lies, damned lies, and statistics this graph is certainly one of them.

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14 points

Did you know that disco record sales were up 400% for the year ending 1976, if these trends continue…AY!

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12 points
*

It’s a 32-34% increase looking at the graph

But you don’t get that percentage from looking at the graph. You get that from looking at the numbers.
The graph height increases by 300% in the last 3 months 9 days.

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1 point

You could say the same about a 0.001 difference if you zoom in on the y-axis. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

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1 point

A 0.001 difference on a 0.004 total would be worth showing.

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-5 points

True.

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