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Opera has announced that a major update to its web browser will include a native ad blocker, the first in the industry. The company says it will speed up websites and improve user experience, claiming a built-in blocker is more effective than plugins.
The company announced the feature in a blog post today, declaring "People really want ad-blocking technology." It has decided to take the controversial move of building an ad blocker directly into the heart of Opera, a decision it says "will accelerate the change that the ad industry needs to pursue."
Opera explains that sluggish, insecure advertising and fake download buttons are turning people away from the Internet and the publishers that use it. It wants to force the industry to look for a better solution by giving consumers the option of disabling adverts altogether, eliminating the need for browser extensions in the process.
"People are clearly sending a signal to brands and advertisers that the current situation must change," the company said.
It’s 2016, and we believe it’s time for ads to be lighter and faster. There’s the IAB L.E.A.N. initiative for better ads but where are the better ads themselves? Instead, we see a primer on how to convince users to disable adblocking. It’s a good step, but what if ads could be better, less intrusive and not slow down the browsing so significantly?
Native ad blocking will be disabled by default. As a user browses the Internet, they will see a suggestion to enable ad-blocking on websites that contain intrusive ads. Ad-blocking can be controlled per website by toggling a switch in the browser's address bar.
Opera says the process has better performance than traditional plugin solutions. It blocks ads at the earliest point possible, when the browser engine receives a request to visit the address of an ad provider. Whereas extensions spend time checking whether elements of webpages are present in their "remove" lists, Opera's native ad block can tap into the fast algorithms within its engine to accelerate this step, making ad blocking more efficient.
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