Why we introduced Ad blocker to Vivaldi browser

[julien_picalausa]

Vivaldi 3.0 landed with a built-in Ad blocker. Here’s why we took this step (along with advice on how to help your favorite websites still generate revenue).

Click here to see the full blog post

[GT500]

Thank you for implementing ad and tracker blocking technology. Hopefully it will fill the void left over when uBlock Origin for Google Chrome is gone.

[Xypher]

Thanks for providing the option to users! I've already imported some of my custom uBlock lists to Vivaldi and they seem to work well. I turned the blocker off for some of my favorite websites and some just using the tracker blocker to support them, Ad block for everything else. Options are great but of course we still need to be mindful of the [legit and ethical] sites that relies on ad revenue.

Just did some performance tests and the memory footprint did go down when the extensions are turned off. Loadtime-wise, not much difference though.

[zakius]

I still think you should go for full fledged blocker or else too many people would have to disable it to make uBO work effectively
Filter lists are quite resource intensive way of blocking so I opted in to context based 3p blocking by default and only pass some requests to list based filters this way, early returning most of requests

And about all the revenue, I'd gladly disable my blocker on sites that respect their users, but having trackers, meaningless scripts and layout elements forces me to keep them on

[Agych]

Thanks for the new version! It is cool that built-in blockers are implemented.

However, I have a comment on the Google removing the normal extension API.
These built-in Vivaldi blockers are a replacement neither to just uBlock Origin alone, nor especially (!) to the powerful complete-protection-combo of several security/privacy extensions together (including either uBlock Origin or uMatrix) that require the presence of the API that Google wants to remove.

The presence of this API is vital, at any times.
And bringing it back once it is removed, is ofcourse also vital.

Vivaldi Devs pls take this into consideration.

Not speaking for everyone, but at least as for me (and i'm quite sure for many others too),
if this API gets removed and is not restored by Vivaldi, I will have to forever stick with the last Vivaldi version where this API is present.

[cswilly]

You can support a group of websites using https://scroll.com/

Scroll takes your monthly membership fees and distributes the money to websites based on the sites you visit. Scroll websites then remove most of the advertisements you see.

Maybe not 100% of the answer to the advertisement problem, but is an interesting attempt.

I am a member.

[Chas4]

And on some sites the ads add 5+ minutes to page loading. I have also seen sometimes a strange thing where the main content of a site is on an ad server.

[macadoum]

I always block all ads and trackers, even on the sites I like. Lol, sell mugs if your content is good and you want to survive.

[samhall]

Nice feature, but I already have several adblockers. How do I remove the shield from the UI?

[madiso]

@Agych said in Why we introduced Ad blocker to Vivaldi browser:

The presence of this API is vital, at any times.
And bringing it back once it is removed, is ofcourse also vital.

Vivaldi Devs pls take this into consideration.

It depends on how it is done. It may be possible and feasible, but it may also become a burden to maintain.
Ideally they would at least attempt to maintain it for few versions, until the built-in content blocker gets powerful enough.

Not speaking for everyone, but at least as for me (and i'm quite sure for many others too),
if this API gets removed and is not restored by Vivaldi, I will have to forever stick with the last Vivaldi version where this API is present.

Do not even think about that, doing that would place you in much greater danger than a lack of specific content blocker would.

[Agych]

@madiso said:

It depends on how it is done. It may be possible and feasible, but it may also become a burden to maintain.
Ideally they would at least attempt to maintain it for few versions, until the built-in content blocker gets powerful enough.

I guess it is too early to speak about it now, need to see how easy the task of bringing it back will be.
The ideal case is that it is modular and easy to "copy-paste" back with minor changes. That would be just ideal i guess.

@madiso said:

Do not even think about that, doing that would place you in much greater danger than a lack of specific content blocker would.

Disagree. And strongly disagree in the case of a proper and strong security/privacy extensions configuration and setup.
And ofcourse I Do think about that - in the worst case (the API not brought back after its removal by Google) it will be the only way to go.

[Pesala]

@macadoum said in Why we introduced Ad blocker to Vivaldi browser:

sell mugs if your content is good and you want to survive.

Well, that's what they do, isn't it? All of the mugs keep visiting those sites, and they sell their data to the advertisers.

I hate those YouTube channels that nag users to subscribe or buy a T-shirt. If their content is any good, they will get subscribers or at least lots of views, and generate revenue without begging for it.

[dude99]

Thank you for listening to the community, this blocker definitely improved Vivaldi experience for many users.

[pyfips]

Thank you from me too for implementing an ad blocker that's defaulting to "do not block". There are different reasons why to use an ad blocker, for me too:
I was very happy that you implemented the blocker on Android. When I switched from Yandex to Vivaldi I was a bit unhappy since the traffic increased significantly. I regularly hit my data limit of 2gb/month, and more than half of it was "caused" by Vivaldi.

When surfing on my tablet, I do not block by default but on some pages the performance is so bad that it is almost impossible to use them (especially hitting an ad when trying to scroll gets on my nerves or when you have to scroll the first 5 seconds after opening an article since the ads load time after time and are regularly moving your view).
On desktop, I have a big screen and a mouse wheel, so ads do not affect usability that much and the blocker is usually turned off.
Most ad blocker plugins block ads by default, and I have to put each page to a whitelist. However, I constantly forget to put web pages on it and for example blogs that I find by googling for a good tutorial etc. did not profit from me, even so a lot of them have very low ads and I would have had no problem when they view it.
As conclusion: I never found a reliable blocker with a default whitelist, so thank you for implementing it this way, I think it makes it way easier to find a compromise between usability and revenue generation.

Did you think about implementing something like Flattr or alternative ways how web pages could get some money to live?

[supra107]

I just hope that when addon blockers will stop working in Chromium, Vivaldi will keep them working, as to be quite honest, I much more prefer to use an extension than a built in browser function, and I don't want to be forced to use a more basic solution, since Vivaldi's adblocker doesn't have the ability to remove manually chosen elements on the sites, among other things available in uBlock Origin and it's forks.

[npro]

@supra107 Until then, you could export the filters you have created using uBlock's element picker to a text file and import it as a new blocker list.

[petersaints]

Regardless of providing a built-in ad blocking solution, it would be interesting to see you guys and other developers collaborate on keeping the Web Request API alive beyond Manifest v3. Perhaps a joint effort between all Chromium-based browsers other than Google Chrome, i.e, Vivaldi, Opera, Brave and perhaps even Edge, would make things easier in the long run.

Moreover, relying on Chrome Web Store for extension distribution on virtually all Chromium-based browsers is bad, but fragmention such as the one promoted by having browser specific stores such as Opera add-ons (https://addons.opera.com/en/) or Edge add-ons (https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/) is also undesirable. Perhaps it could be possible to create an open store for WebExtensions that is not governed by a single entity.

[AnonWatch]

Super big thanks for the ad and Tracking blocker

[lrc1128]

Hey, I have been paying for a ad blocker for awhile now. Thank you for this option! This is great! Works just as good if not better. Thanks again.

[Catweazle]

@lrc1128 said in Why we introduced Ad blocker to Vivaldi browser:

Hey, I have been paying for a ad blocker for awhile now. Thank you for this option! This is great! Works just as good if not better. Thanks again.

?? You are the first person who has used a paid adblocker, worst than the build in Vivaldi. The best adblocker extensions I know are all free and Open Source (uBlock Origin, nano Adblocker, Blokada (Android. app)..)