Ad blocking technology is seen becoming a much importance if one want to experience the internet as it is intended to be enjoyed. Pop-ups windows and preloads of advertisements has been the industry norm to enjoy free content and videos, but to what expense? So much so, many users are getting annoyed by these commercials and have installed ad blocking software’s on their PCs. In US more than 48% are using these tools to prevent these attention hoggers and across the globe already over over 41% have installed some sort of these applications.
Acknowledging the current approach of advertising is damaging online users who usually experince slow browser speeds and interuption on web-surfing, Opera the Norwegian software company know popularly for its mobile operating software, has now developed an in built ad-blocking technology into its browser for PCs. Once enabled the webpage load speed increases upto 90% faster compared with browsing with the option disabled.
The improved performance is possible since the filtering happens at the web-engine level, where the browser can fully control the loading process of the webpage – something extensions can’t do.
“Advertising fuels the internet, allowing for many services to be free for users. But, as our new research shows, most webpages today are significantly slowed down by bloated ads and heavy tracking. We don’t accept it – we want the web to be a better place for us all, as users,” says Krystian Kolondra, SVP of Engineering and Head of Opera for computers.
How the feature works
The ad-blocking feature, available in the developer version of Opera for computers, is fully integrated with the browser and requires no additional download of extensions or plug-ins.
While browsing, users can easily choose to enable ad-blocking by selecting the dialog option. In addition to the simple on-off button, the ad-blocking feature comes with a benchmark, for users, web developers and publishers to see how much ads and tracking software affect page-loading times. Users can also monitor their browsing by the day, week and total number of blocked ads.
Opera tested the page-loading time of 66 popular websites, comparing the Opera browser with integrated ad-blocking technology to Chrome and Firefox, both with the Adblock Plus extension. Opera also tested the loading time on Microsoft Edge, but without an ad-blocking extension, as there was none on the market at the time of the tests.
Maybe its time to dump de-facto browsers and consider Opera, that is if you dont want to see those pop-ups filling up your screen.
