Opera unveils new ad-blocking browser

Opera Software on Thursday unveiled a new version of its desktop web browser that would feature advert-blocking technology built into the webpage rendering engine.

This was contained in a statement by Mr Krystian Kolondra, Opera SVP of Engineering and obtained by our correspondent in Lagos.

According to the statement, Opera’s own testing, the ad-blocking feature will dramatically increase the speed of webpage loading for the new developer version of the browser, which is now available for download.

It said that with the built-in advert-blocking, the new Opera desktop developer version would claim loading speeds that browser extensions cannot match.

It said that Opera, received a $1.2bn buyout offer from a consortium of Chinese internet firms, aimed at providing a better user experience of a web that is bogged down by advertising and tracking.

“Advertising fuels the internet, allowing for many services to be free for users. But, as our new research shows, most webpage 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,’’ it said.

The statement said that the Norwegian software firm promises up to 90 per cent faster loading of webpage with the Opera desktop developer version, compared with browsing with the option disabled.

It also said that the built-in feature would perform on average 40 per cent better than third-party ad-blocking browser extensions.

It said that Opera attributed the speed gains to the way its ad-filtering occurred at the web rendering engine level, where the browser itself had full control over the loading process of the webpage.

It said that the execution level was inaccessible to plug-in blocking extensions.

The statement said that Opera also tested its new browser against Microsoft Edge, which does not yet have any ad-blocker extensions.

Each webpage was tested 15 times, without emptying the page cache, to simulate real world use.

The statement according to the company said that the use of ad-blocking software grew by 41 per cent worldwide and with 98 per cent of those users on PCs.

It said that the growth could be attributed to an increased frustration experienced by users because of the slowed web browsing that adverts could cause.