Lucid Browser; The lightweight browser that surfs the web efficiently.

in #utopian-io5 years ago

App Github Link

Introduction

The world today is at the digital age. A larger percentage of the world's population makes use of the internet daily in various ways and medium. One of the most popular of these ways is surfing the internet through the use of web browsers.
When it comes to web browsers, users preference often differ and it ranges from speed, size of the app, security, compatibility with devices to other customizable features present in the browser app.
It's very difficult if not impossible to see a browser that possesses all the features that one wants, I, for instance, have different browsers I used for different internet activities. I use UC browser for downloads, I use Google Chrome for general surfing especially when I had surf in realtime and also need to use the desktop mode of the websites. I also have opera mini for light web surfing operations due to its lite size. But of recent, I've been having issues with my the space on my device, which means I have to find a way of optimizing the apps on my device in such a way that the useful applications are not lost. In my search for a browser app that can serve the purpose of surfing the internet very fast, download files, browse with desktop mode, save data and most importantly have small in size and simple to use, I came across Lucid Browser, a browser that is small, light, fast, and simple web browser allowing you to surf the web with speed that is less than 4MB in size..
image.png
source

Review of Lucid Browser Features.

Lucid Browser User Interface.

The User Interface of this browser is a very simple one. The browser uses a custom homepage that loads locally for quick start-ups. Lucid Browser uses Ecosia as it's default search engine and start-up page. Ecosia a project designed to help plant trees by donating 80% or more of its surplus income to non-profit organizations that focus on reforestation and conservationism. Which means if you are passionate about protecting our ecosystem, this browser offers you the opportunity to do so without stress. I actually don't know a search engine of such existed, thanks to this browser I found out about such a wonderful project. Although, there is an option to change your default search engine to other search engines such as Google, Bing Yahoo e.t.c. Be sure that I'm going to leave it as my default search engine as a little contribution of mine to preserve the mother Earth.Screenshot_20190504172748.png

Lucid Browser Settings

Lucid Browser comes with some settings and ways to personalize the look and functions of the app. The Settings option can be found and accessed from the browser menu window which is accessed by swiping from the edge of the screen (right edge originally, but can be set to be on the left edge also) while in the homepage. Although there are 8 different options under the settings option, not all of them would be thoroughly talked about because they are trivial to the main function of the app or self-explanatory.
Screenshot_20190506144842.png
The image above is showing what the Settings page looks like when you click on it, and the various options present in it. Let's start going into it one after the other:
-Main settings Screenshot_20190504173229.png
This is just a page to choose whether or not to display status bar and navigation bar while using the browser, as for me I prefer that both the status bar and navigation bar are both displayed as my screen is big enough to conveniently accommodate all.
And it can be seen also that there is an option to set "Theme" on dark mode or light mode and to choose whether to receive confirmation test before exiting the app.
To me, I don't believe we should dwell more talking on this as these are self-explanatory and doesn't really have to do with the main purpose of the app.

  • Browser Settings
    Next on the list is the browser settings, this is an interesting part that has effects on the functions of the app.Screenshot_20190504173315.png

Load Images.
This feature works as the name implies. When this feature is enabled, all the images on a webpage will load. But when this feature is disabled, the images on a webpage are not loaded consequently, saving the amount of internet data subscription being used. This is a very good feature that people who want to minimize their data usage can make use of.
Apart from saving data, blocking images also increases the rate at which web pages load (browsing speed); since there are no images to load, just texts.

Allow Cookies
This feature allows users to allow or disallow the storage of their cookies info while browsing. This is a security feature. In case you are wondering what web cookies are (is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user's computer by the user's web browser while the user is browsing. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) or to record the user's browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past). They can also be used to remember arbitrary pieces of information that the user previously entered into form fields such as names, addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers.) source.
I mostly allow this feature as most of the activities I'm running with this browser are not high-level security.

Remove Browser Traces...
This feature allows users to delete every browsing activities carried out within the app such as browsing history, cache memory, and web cookies. I'll advise this is done at the end of every browsing sessions to protect your data. Also, to make this easier for users, there is an option to clear all these traces whenever the app is exited. I'll advise to leave it on if you are someone that cares about your browsing privacy and don't want to take any chances of forgetting to clear traces.

Font Size
With this feature, you'll be able to customize the size in which you want your web page content to be displayed. This is a very handy tool for those that can only read when the text font is enlarged or prefer it a little smaller. I like this feature.
Other feature settings present in this page are
Enable Desktop View ( this enables users to switch to the desktop display mode of the webpage in view)
Search Engine (Enables users to choose the search engine preferred by him/her among the list of the search engine present)Screenshot_20190504173739.png and,
Close Tabs on Exit (allows users to close all tabs automatically whenever the app is exited)all of which are commonly found in most browsers and requires little or no introduction to all web surfers.

  • Search Bar Settings
    This feature allows users to customize the appearance of the search / URL bar. Users can change the colour and also activate/deactivate suggestions while conducting a search with the browser.Screenshot_20190506155427.png

  • Sidebar Settings
    This feature is the place where users can change the colour of display of the sidebar (menu options) and also to select the edge (right or left) which the sidebar will be accessed by the user. You can set the sidebar theme to light, dark or any customized colour of your choice.
    Screenshot_20190506155450.png

  • Bookmark Settings
    Although most browsers have the ability to save and edit bookmarks, not all have the ability to import or export Bookmarks. Lucid browser allows for complete management of bookmarks with folder categorization. For example, you can import bookmarks from other browsers that use file formats of HTML or JSON. This is a good feature that saves users stress and time to import all their Bookmarks at once and integrate them into this great browser. I like this feature.Screenshot_20190504173403.png

  • Advanced Settings
    This is surprisingly a very simple settings option in contrary to its name. The function of this feature is just to restore all settings to the default one. Once this option is selected, all previous settings and customizations revert to the default oneScreenshot_20190504173439.png

The remaining 2 options present on the settings page are links to another product by the developer and the link to upgrade to the Pro version of the browser which a little token is paid to remove ads from the app (as the free one that was reviewed contain ads). Also, the Pro version is even more light-weight as it is less than 2MB in size. Isn't that awesome?!. I'll advise you to give it a try if you are impressed with the free version, you'll be more impressed with the Pro.

Aside from the features which I talked about above, the browser has some other features which were not talked about because they are peculiar to most browsing apps. Examples; Multi-tabs, Inbuilt downloader, History, Find-in-page, Share, Set as Homepage e.t.c

Conclusion

There are so many things I like about this browser. I was impressed mostly by the fact that a browser app with such a lightweight size could deliver in speed and other important browsing features. In as much as I like this app, one thing I found as an issue the inability of the browser to browse with Private tabs (Incognito mode). This will offer users that are very particular about there privacy the full sense of confidence that there is no trace of their browsing activities anywhere. If you are looking for a browser that offers so much with little device space, I'll implore you to give Lucid browser a try.

Resources:

The content of this post was created based on my knowledge of the project, and mostly from my experience, all other info sources were duly cited. The images used are screenshots of the application on my device. Other images gotten elsewhere have their source links provided below them.

My Github profile

Thank you.

Sort:  

Hello, @jubreal!

Thank you for your contribution. Your review is very informative, comprehensive and well-illustrated with relevant images. Keep up the good work.

I appreciate the effort you put into your work, and I have to admit that I was amazed by the vast amounts of information provided regarding the project itself and its key features. The post is extensive and detailed, and the content is unique and editorial. I particularly enjoyed reading about your personal views and preferences; this is the kind of content we like to see in blog posts.

That being said, there were minor issues of style and proofreading, but not to the level where it hurt the readability of your text. To sum up, this is a nice contribution from you, and I am already looking forward to your next one.

Your contribution has been evaluated according to Utopian policies and guidelines, as well as a predefined set of questions pertaining to the category.

To view those questions and the relevant answers related to your post, click here.


Need help? Chat with us on Discord.

[utopian-moderator]

Thank you for your review, @lordneroo! Keep up the good work!

Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 16 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.

I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 7 SBD worth and should receive 190 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.

I am TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!

Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
trufflepig
TrufflePig

Hi @jubreal!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your post is eligible for our upvote, thanks to our collaboration with @utopian-io!
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server

Hey, @jubreal!

Thanks for contributing on Utopian.
We’re already looking forward to your next contribution!

Get higher incentives and support Utopian.io!
Simply set @utopian.pay as a 5% (or higher) payout beneficiary on your contribution post (via SteemPlus or Steeditor).

Want to chat? Join us on Discord https://discord.gg/h52nFrV.

Vote for Utopian Witness!

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.041
BTC 70142.92
ETH 3587.61
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.93