The seemingly indestructible Google has met its biggest challenge yet. On Thursday morning, Opera served up their version of kryptonite in the form of built-in ad blocking. Users are encouraged to turn it on for the improved browsing experience. While this bodes well for users, competitors have a reason to be concerned.
NEW OPERA MAKES FOR QUICK AND AD-FREE INTERNET
Like Opera, Chrome and Firefox have plugins fitted with the task of blocking ads. The difference is that it’s not built right into the software. Users have a choice to use it, but seeing as it can cut page load times up to 60-90 percent, it’s unlikely they won’t. Besides, who actually wants ads? The folks at Opera realize that no one does and that’s why they are starting a campaign to bring the smoothest internet experience possible. Not only is it good for users, but time spent handling ads and trackers will decrease. This doesn’t necessarily work well for Google, however.
GOOGLE’S END WILL BE THE AD BLOCK
The majority of Google’s business comes from selling online advertising. How much you ask? Their advertising revenue will go back to being above 90% of its total this year. That number was decreasing as Google moved towards other ventures, but the ad is still their foundation. Opera, on the other hand, could care less. They hardly make their money from advertising which is why they can afford to lead the way to a cleaner, faster internet. The results speak for themselves too. Opera’s ad block feature was tested to be about 63 percent faster without ads.
WHAT WILL AND AD FREE WEB LOOK LIKE?
Well for one, websites like Google that receive ad money will be hurt. Already, many websites with heavy advertising either block those who use ad blockers or simply refuse to serve content to them. Many services completely thrive on advertising for survival. Will these services find a way to adapt or will they perish amongst an ad-free web? More importantly, will users choose more efficient browsing over these services? It will be interesting to see which companies get weeded out and the general response of web surfers. Maybe a little advertising is necessary.
