

Today users see when there’s a bad ad on a page -when it covers some part of the page, blocking navigation or requires you to close it. But we simply don’t think ads/trackers should slow down the online experience so much. “We understand ads are important for the Internet and without them many services could not exist-we’re not against that,” Kolondra said. Other sites have simply refused to serve content to users who use ad blockers.) (Full disclosure: IDG, the parent company of PCWorld, is running tests on, where users who are running an ad blocker will receive messages asking them to turn it off to support the site. It should be obvious, but let’s disclose it anyway: Browsing sites like while blocking ads prevents that site from receiving ad money that would pay for the site and its content. But the overall conclusion was inescapable: Blocking ads dramatically accelerates Web surfing.Īs for compatibility: Opera worked flawlessly with the ads turned off-except, for some reason, on, where the page became unresponsive. Web page load times depend on a number of factors: the speed of the network connection, the size of the page, the number and complexity of ads. How much can blocking ads speed up your browsing? Opera’s internal speed test will show you. (You’ll still see embedded video on news pages, however.) According to Kolondra, the browser will block tracking pixels and third-party scripts if they’re used for advertising purposes. In my tests, Opera’s ad-blocking software eliminated traditional banner and display ads, as well as pre-roll ads on YouTube and other sites. The browser will also perform a speed test, timing how fast a page loads with or without ads.

Not convinced that ad-blocking will make a difference? Then click the shield: Opera added an incredibly slick benchmark tool to show you how many ads it’s blocked on a given page. You can kill ads in the new Opera browser via a global setting. When ad-blocking is enabled, that shield is blue.

Alternatively, you can either check a box in the Settings menu (do a search for “ads” in the Settings search box it’s faster) or simply click a small, grayed-out “shield” icon to the far right of the URL bar. Install the new version of Opera, load a page, and immediately a popup appears, asking whether you “would like to block ads and surf the Web faster.” If you agree to Opera’s invitation, ads are blocked right away. All that slows down the time it takes a page to load. But it’s also extra code that must be loaded together with the text and images you want to see. Online ads can be used for all sorts of reasons: to sell you things, to track you as you move around the Web, and even to plant malware on your machine. Opera’s latest browser immediately encourages you to begin blocking ads.
