advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Microsoft to bring native ad-blocking to the Edge browser

Nobody likes an intrusive advert, and as a result we’ve seen the rise of ad-blocking browser extensions in recent years. Recently, Opera announced that it was testing native ad-blocking in its browser using the same checklist the popular AdBlock extension uses.

The next firm to join Opera in native browser ad-blocking seems to be Microsoft. The very same Microsoft who uses your Start menu to deliver ads to you (disguised as “suggested apps”) is working to block ads in your browser.

According to PC World, ad-blocking in Edge, IE’s replacement, will most likely be rolled out in the next version of the browser (version 4682811), though Microsoft gave no exact date for its arrival.

Microsoft also hasn’t revealed how it will block adverts and whether it will draw upon a whitelist-like approach, or simply block every ad it finds on a page.

This bit of news highlights something we’ve droned on about for some time now: people don’t mind advertising but they hate intrusive ads, and beyond that, they hate having to wait for a web page to load because an advert needs to load a JavaScript command in the background.

A recent study found that mobile advertising could be using as much as 50% of a user’s data. That’s not only annoying, it costs you money, a big no-no in a country like South Africa where mobile data isn’t exactly cheap.

We understand that advertising pays the bills, but with data costs as high as they are online ads need to be re-examined. There has to be some sort of middle ground where ads are neither intrusive nor data-intensive, and we’re hoping Edge’s ad-blocking approach will help reach that point.

[Update: Microsoft has corrected the initial report, saying ad-blocking won’t be native to Edge, but rather that ad-blocking will become possible through plugins developed by third parties.]

 

[Via – PC World] [Image – Microsoft]

 

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement