Asus will soon pre-install AdBlock Plus on its mobile devices

[Shawn Knight]

Asus' line of smartphones and tablets will soon ship with AdBlock Plus pre-installed. Not only that, it'll come enabled by default - a decision that has the potential to create waves in the mobile industry.

AdBlock Plus will be baked into Asus Browser, the PC vendor's proprietary web browser. If you've never heard of Asus Browser, you're not alone as the software has an estimated user base of around 15 million - hardly a blip on the map in today's mobile-centric world. It could, however, set a controversial precedent for other handset / browser makers.

The only ads that would get through would likely be those that are part of AdBlock Plus' Acceptable Ads program.

AdBlock Plus co-founder and CEO Till Faida confirmed the news, telling Motherboard that they were extremely happy to team up with Asus, the first major hardware manufacturer to integrate ad blocking into their mobile devices. Faida described it as another call for innovation in the ad industry - a call that's getting louder by the day.

Proponents of ad blocking software argue that advertising is annoying, eats up additional bandwidth (a real concern for those with small data allotments) and serves as a vehicle for malware installation - all valid arguments.

Content creators, however, view ads as a necessary evil that allows them to make a living. Without the revenue that ads generate, the Internet as we know it simply wouldn't exist.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63255-asus-soon-pre-install-adblock-plus-mobile-devices.html

 

[m4a4]

With how annoying forced ads have become, I certainly don't feel bad about this.

If a site that uses ads wants me to support them, then they can ask me to turn it off (and I might if their ads aren't too annoying)...

 

[Adhmuz]

Well I hate Advertisement with a pretty big passion, any computer I use has Ad Block on it, even when it's not my computer I feel compelled to install it so that I can browse and use the web in peace. On my phone I use Bug me Not which works pretty well at blocking adds built in to apps themselves, some do get through but it's enough to make it worth using.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of advertisement on the Internet, I just can't respect something trying so hard as to open up a dedicated window, or a new page or even just cluttering up the site I'm trying to read just to try to sell me some piece of crap I couldn't be less interested in. And then theres the fact that if an add pisses me off enough I would just never consider buying anything from that retailer ever again, chances are I've never herd of them in the first place anyways, so whats the harm in just never seeing the add in the first place?

Time to check out this browser by Asus.

 

[Jibberish18]

I don't mind ads at all. I really don't. I even disable my Ad Blocker on sites I frequent often but some sites just deserve to have you block the **** out of them. Seriously. It becomes ridiculous when you're reading something and all of a sudden a gigantic ad takes up your entire screen and doesn't let you do anything until you X out. Especially on phones. I say good. Teach the industry a lesson.

 

[TuffGuy1958]

Personally I can take ads or leave them, if they are there I just ignore them. They can fill every blank space on the screen around whatever page I am looking at and they are out of focus and ignored. What I really, really detest is the intrusiveness of a lot of ads these days.
You go to watch a video on a site and you have to sit there for 30 seconds or so in front of a forced ad until you can see your video. Watching videos with popups shooting up all over the screen and you are so busy trying to X them out you miss the video and have to waste time watching it all over again and fighting popups again. Say anything you want but this is just plain wrong. Also we have site redirects where you temporarily get redirected to an ad site on the way to the original link. Full screen ad popups which are nothing but time wasters. Let us not forget auto ads, you go to a link to read something or watch a video and an auto ad starts playing its own little video with sound drowning out whatever you are watching and you cannot find anywhere on the screen to stop the ad.
Just to rub salt in the wounds of internet users the people pushing this crap always cry poor but are actually making millions doing things to users who have no control over them. Well now users are taking their power back with adblock and similar programs. Nobody is going to make money out of forcing me to do something I don't want to do.