New version of Opera claims it can significantly boost speed

Mar 10, 2016 08:01 GMT  ·  By
The browser shows a new icon in the address bar when ads are blocked
4 photos
   The browser shows a new icon in the address bar when ads are blocked

Opera has just launched a new version of its browser that comes with integrated ad-blocking capabilities, promising speed increases of up to 90 percent.

Currently available in the dev branch, Opera 37 is the first version to come with such a feature, as Opera claims that it’s aiming for a significant speed boost when blocking advertisements on websites that its users are loading.

Opera claims that its desktop browser can “speed up the load time of webpages with as much as 90 percent” when no ad blocker is being used, and as compared to traditional browser addons that can keep websites ad-free, it offers a speed increase of 40 percent on average.

As you can see in the screenshots attached to the article (but also in the video provided by Opera and published at the end of the article), Opera displays a small icon in the address bar when ads are blocked, so you can either whitelist a website or perform a speed test to see the impact of ads on page loading times.

It’s all due to “bloated ads and heavy tracking”

In case you believe that launching a browser that can block ads by default is not ethical, Opera says that it’s only doing so because some websites are full of bloated ads that do nothing more than slow down the browsing experience. And since the final purpose is to speed up browsing, that’s why Opera now has a built-in ad blocker.

“Advertising fuels the internet, allowing for many services to be free for users. But, as our new research shows, most webpages 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,” says Krystian Kolondra, SVP of Engineering and Head of Opera for computers.

Keep in mind that Opera 37 with ad-blocking capabilities is still in the dev branch, so some bugs might still be experienced. If you want to give it a try right away, go ahead and download Opera 37 to see how it can boost browsing speed.

Opera 37 also offers a speed test to compare the ad and no-ad page
Opera 37 also offers a speed test to compare the ad and no-ad page

Opera browser with built-in ad blocker (4 Images)

The browser shows a new icon in the address bar when ads are blocked
Opera 37 also offers a speed test to compare the ad and no-ad pageOpera browser with ad blocker
+1more