Anti-ad software slows mobile load times

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NEW YORK: Time-pressured internet users often say they install ad blocking software to speed up their browsing experience, but they may be surprised by a new study which found ad blockers can actually slow load times on some mobile sites.

Catchpoint Systems, a global website performance company, analysed load times on the mobile sites of 20 leading brands, operating in the news, retail, financial services and travel sectors.

UK advertising site Warc reports that the study monitored the time it took for content to load with ad blocking software switched off and then compared the results with the time taken with it installed.

Although load times speeded up for the majority of brand websites when ad blockers were switched on, performance worsened on seven mobile sites, especially for brands in the financial services and travel sectors.

“Here’s a surprise, though: sometimes it’s not ads that hurt performance, but ad blockers,” said Mehdi Daoudi, ceo of Catchpoint Systems in a blog post.


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