While Chrome continues to be the most-used browser on Android smartphones and tablets, the Google Play Store is a veritable repository for a huge number of browser apps that can be used by people not entirely satisfied with Google’s popular offering. While some third-party browsers like the Mozilla Firefox, or Opera are fairly mainstream and are widely used by many people from around the world not just on their mobile devices but also on their desktop computers, there are many unique, specially-curated browser apps that are targeted at specific audiences who’re looking for certain particular features that are not to be found elsewhere.
This is where Link Bubble comes in. The browser was bought last year from Developer Chris Lacey by Brave Software, and immediately thereafter, the formerly freemium software was made completely free for users to download, install and use. Now, through a post on its website, Brave Software, the owners of Link Bubble, has officially announced that it is opening up the browser’s source code, thereby encouraging potential third-party development. The source code, meanwhile, has already been apparently uploaded to Github, as per the post on the homepage of the company’s website. The company has also announced that the browser will henceforth be known simply as ‘Brave’, as part of the new shift in its strategy towards the app, which has already received a number of updates over the past few months, with new features and bug fixes having been rolled out to the program under the new management.
Brave Software says that it is principally against the very concept of ad-blocking, which it describes as being akin to “free-riding and even starting a war”. The post on its homepage goes on to say that “With enough people blocking ads, the Web’s main funding model is in jeopardy. At Brave, we’re building a solution designed to avert war and … building a new browser and a connected private cloud service with anonymous ads”. The company is also accepting proposals to beta test the latest version of the software, so interested users will be able to sign up for the program by heading over to the company’s official website.