Thoughts on privacy, browsers, performance, and the open web. Published when there's something to say.
A plain-English explainer of HTTP/3, QUIC, and Encrypted Client Hello — what actually changed under the hood, and what it means for what your ISP can still see when you browse.
A component-by-component breakdown of what we removed from Chromium to build Nav0 — telemetry, background sync, speculative pre-rendering, and the recommendation engine — and what users actually lose.
A concrete list of what breaks when an indie browser lies about being Chromium — Client Hints, bot defenses, passkeys, DRM, Web Push, store installs, analytics, and more — written for other indie browser teams.
InternetWorks, NetCaptor, SimulBrowse — the real, messy history of tabbed browsing, and why the popular story that Opera invented the browser tab is a myth.
A long-form reference for every browser permission prompt: camera, mic, geolocation, sensors, storage, notifications, USB, MIDI, and more. What each one means and what gets sent.
Cookie consent banners were supposed to give you control over your data. Instead, they became a tax on attention, a UX disaster, and a fig leaf for tracking that never really stopped.
A celebratory survey of today's indie browsers — Min, Helium, Ladybird, Zen, Orion, Qutebrowser, SigmaOS, Floorp, LibreWolf, Beaker, and Nav0 — and why a scrappy wave of small projects matters in a web dominated by four vendors.
Opera pioneered tabbed browsing and mouse gestures — then new ownership shifted its focus toward monetization. Today it ships a browser-only proxy marketed as a VPN, an AI assistant, built-in messengers, a news feed, and a gaming edition. Nav0 just ships a browser.
We re-ran our Nav0 vs Chrome performance benchmark on the same MacBook Pro M1 with Nav0 v0.1.2. Memory dropped up to 21%, CPU dropped up to 36%, and Nav0 still uses 45% less memory and 77% less CPU than Chrome.
Comet Browser and Nav0 both promise fast, private browsing. But one is closed source and the other is fully auditable. When it comes to privacy, verifiability is what separates promises from proof.
DuckDuckGo's browser is a solid privacy option — until you learn about the Microsoft tracking exception, the remote config system, and the AI features. Nav0 takes the simpler path: collect nothing, period.
Microsoft Edge ships with more telemetry than almost any browser on the market. It sends your browsing data to Microsoft, pushes Bing, Copilot AI, shopping tools, and news feeds you never asked for. Nav0 sends nothing to anyone.
Tor Browser is the gold standard for online anonymity, routing your traffic through encrypted relays worldwide. Nav0 takes a different approach: zero data collection without the performance tradeoffs. Here's when you need Tor — and when Nav0 is enough.
Safari is the most privacy-friendly mainstream browser — but it's still controlled by Apple, tied to iCloud, and locked to one ecosystem. Nav0 takes Safari's privacy ideals and removes the strings attached.
Vivaldi is the most customizable browser ever built — mail client, calendar, RSS reader, note-taking, and hundreds of settings. Nav0 takes the opposite approach: do less, perfectly. Here's why a browser that does everything may not do the one thing you need it to.
Arc and Nav0 both reject Chrome's status quo, but from opposite directions. Arc adds more UI — Spaces, Easels, AI features, split views. Nav0 removes UI. This is maximalism vs. minimalism, and only one approach doesn't require your data.
Brave markets itself as the privacy browser, but it ships with a crypto wallet, its own ad network, an AI assistant, and a VPN upsell. Nav0 has none of that. Here's why true privacy means no monetization layer touching your browser.
Firefox is the most respected alternative browser and genuinely cares about privacy. But it still ships telemetry by default, pushes Mozilla accounts, shows sponsored content, and grows more complex every year. Nav0 takes Firefox's ideals further by removing everything that isn't browsing.
Private browsing modes like Chrome's Incognito don't make you private. They hide your history from your device — not from your ISP, employer, or the websites you visit. Here's what they actually do.
We measured every byte transferred by Nav0 and Chrome across 15 real websites. Nav0 used 17.7% less data, made 29.1% fewer requests, blocked 2.5 MB of trackers, and produced zero idle background traffic.
We ran a rigorous head-to-head performance comparison between Nav0 and Google Chrome on a MacBook Pro M1. Nav0 used 48.5% less memory, 86.3% less CPU, and spawned far fewer processes across every tab count tested.
Chrome used to be the fast, clean browser that saved us from Internet Explorer. Now it's a bloated, data-hungry machine that serves Google's ad business first and users second. Here's how it happened.
Every time you open your browser, it nudges you to create an account and sign in. That's not about convenience — it's about tying every click, search, and keystroke to your real identity.
Privacy-focused extensions are the most common advice for staying safe online. But extensions themselves are a privacy and security risk most people overlook. Here's why bolting on privacy doesn't work.
Modern browsers collect an astonishing amount of data about you. We break down exactly what they track, why it matters, and what you can do about it.
Every major browser is cramming AI features into their product. Nobody asked for this. Here's why forced AI integration is bad for users, bad for privacy, and bad for the web.
Browsers are shipping with built-in VPN services and calling it a privacy feature. It's not. Here's why browser VPNs are security theater and what you should use instead.
Google, Microsoft, and Apple control how billions of people access the web. When your browser is made by an ad company or a platform gatekeeper, whose interests does it really serve?
