Web browsers are integral to our daily lives. They help us navigate through the chores with ease, and all one needs to do is just whip out their smartphone and ask a query. Web browsers have evolved, thanks to developers working towards making them user-intuitive and utilitarian. One such browser that combines access and comfort is Veera, a made-in-India browser. Veera is a highly localised web browser, and it becomes very evident, especially with features named Kavach, Khazana, and the name of the browser itself. I have been using the browser for a few days, from looking up terms to image search, I tried it for almost everything that a browser can do. Here is my review. What makes Veera different? Veera is plenty different from most common web browsers like Chrome and Safari. However, it also has a lot in common with web browsers like Brave, which is also a browser that natively blocks third-party ads on most websites. Veera also offers rewards in the form of points, which will be stored in Khazana (chest). Underneath, Veera is based on Chromium, the open-source web browser project developed and maintained by Google that also powers Chrome. Hence, the basics of the Veera remain identical to most mobile web browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Brave. Great browsing experience for users, but what about publishers? Veera offers a great browsing experience for users, and I also felt that the web pages on the browser load a tad faster than Google Chrome. This is primarily because Veera is blocking third-party ads by default. The browser also offers a toggle to disable the ad-blocker, which works just fine. There is also an option where Veera will show its own ads and the company says that this is a way of monetising the browser. You can only redeem points if you enable Veera ads, also known as Kavach (armour). Unlike most web browsers, where, when an ad-blocker is enabled, most websites detect the same and do not offer access to the site. On Veera, none of the websites detected that ad-blocker was enabled. On the home page, it offers details like the number of ads blocked overall, Khazana balance, and there is also a carousel for news sourced from various publications. This carousel can be accessed by simply scrolling down on the home screen, making the browser a news discovery platform of sorts. The language of this feed can be switched between Hindi and English, and within the profile menu, a user can also choose their news recommendation preferences from options such as movies, sports, gaming, science, food, and more. While the ad blocking bit enables a seamless user experience, I do worry about publishers, who mostly depend on ad revenue. Blocking an ad on a website will make it look cleaner and load faster but it also takes away their revenue. A browser with built-in games that pays Veera web browser also offers games through which you can earn points, which can be redeemed for coupons. During my testing, Veera offered over 40 coupons for Amazon, Gaana, Myntra, and more. If you set Veera as your default web browser, you can easily earn 1150 points. The games listed are fairly basic. They will help a user to kill time and gain rewards too. However, the offline Dinosaur Game available on Chrome is a glaring omission - to play games on Veera, one needs an active internet connection. Should you get the Veera browser? Veera web browser is currently available for Android smartphones and tablets for free, and the company has confirmed to launch iOS and Windows versions of the same in the coming days. If you are looking for a web browser with an integrated ad-blocker, then Veera is a great option. Besides offering an ad-free browsing experience, the browser also offers additional perks like coupons and games, which makes it a really interesting web browser.
