Dive Brief:
- The latest version of the Opera browser will come with a new built-in feature — ad blocking capabilities.
- This is the first time that ad blocking has come as a basic feature in a major web browser, rather than as a plug-in, according to Reuters. Opera's desktop browser is the fifth largest in the market with 60 million active monthly users, behing offerings from Microsoft, Google, Firefox, and Apple.
- Opera said they incorporated ad blocking in its latest browser to speed up webpage load times, which Opera claims are as much as 90% faster with the ad blocking feature.
Dive Insight:
Ad blocking has become a major — and very public — issue for marketers, ad tech firms and publishers alike.
The move by Opera to include built-in ad blocking could help it differentiate itself from competitors like Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome browsers. The biggest impact Opera's move may have is spurring its competitors to consider whether they, too, need to introduce similar features.
This isn't the first time that Opera has introduced a new feature into its browser that quickly became standard for all browsers, Reuters reports, as Opera established browser tabs and pop-up blockers as standard features for browsers.
While none of the four other major desktop browsers come with built-in ad blocking, Apple's iOS9 update brought ad blocking to its mobile Safari browser, setting a significant precedent. Opera said it plans to bring built-in ad blocking to its mobile browser next, where it has 281 million users, far more than its desktop browser.
"Ad-blocking technology is an opportunity and a wake-up call to the advertising industry to pay attention to what consumers are actually saying," an Opera spokeswoman told Reuters.
Recent research from location-based mobile and digital firm, Retale, found 57% of U.S. adults use ad blocking software on desktop. Ad blocking has become such a big issue that the Interactive Advertising Bureau has addressed it more than once in recent times, from admitting ad blocking is a symptom of poor user experience to denouncing the technology outright. The IAB’s latest official stance on ad blocking is a new primer for publishers on how to handle visitors who use ad blocking technology.