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

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

🧡 SUPPORT TECHLORE
Keep Techlore Talks independent & growing: ★ Support this podcast ★