How Ad Blockers Work, Why They Break, and the Future of Private Search (JP Schmetz Interview)
Techlore TalksShow Notes
Most ad blockers start by blocking everything—then you become tech support for friends & family when pages break. Henry interviewed JP Schmetz, founder of Brave Search and CEO of Ghostery, about making trackers visible, why there are only 3 search indexes in the world, reinventing the open web with AI, and how to avoid becoming "the family CTO." 🔗 SOURCES & LINKS • Ghostery: https://www.ghostery.com/ • Who Tracks Me Database: https://whotracks.me/ • Ghostery Private Search: https://www.ghostery.com/private-search • Brave Search: https://search.brave.com/ ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00:00 INTRO 00:01:32 ORIGINS WITH GHOSTERY 00:03:15 SEARCH ENGINES + BROWSERS 00:06:32 GHOSTERY'S BROWSER EXTENSION 00:09:09 THE PRIVACY DISCONNECT 00:13:02 REAL WORLD IMPACTS 00:16:03 PRIVACY VARIES BY LOCATION 00:16:47 PAGE BLOCKING + BREAKING 00:24:06 ADAPTATION + TRUST 00:28:48 ROLES AT GHOSTERY + BRAVE 00:29:22 OPEN SOURCE 00:30:38 BRAVE SHIELDS OR GHOSTERY? 00:32:36 SUGGESTED CONFIGURATIONS 00:40:13 WHOTRACKS.ME 00:44:30 WHAT IS A TRACKER? 00:47:39 WHAT ARE THE INCENTIVES? 00:50:31 DOES BLOCKING = NO DATA SHARING? 00:53:50 THE INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS 00:57:27 PRIVATE SEARCH 01:00:11 META SEARCH VS. INDEPENDENT INDEX 01:02:30 CONTEXTUAL VS. TARGETED ADVERTISING 01:06:28 BRAVE SEARCH ADS 01:08:16 INDEXES 01:10:53 AI + SEARCH 01:19:43 WHAT'S NEXT? 01:22:22 PUBLISHING + INCENTIVES + THE FUTURE 01:25:30 HOW TO FOLLOW 🎥 VIDEO Watch on YouTube
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