How Ad Blockers Work, Why They Break, and the Future of Private Search (JP Schmetz Interview)
Show 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
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