AdBlock Plus will be included and activated by default in Asus' proprietary browser that ships on its mobile devices, starting early 2016
Browsers Are Starting to Block Ads by Default — Here's an intriguing new twist in the debate over adblockers: starting in early 2016 …
Context & Ripple Effects
AdBlock Plus spent 2015 trying to reach phones on its own, launching a Firefox-based Android browser with blocking built in back in May — a niche product few would download. The Asus deal changes the distribution math entirely: instead of asking users to switch browsers, blocking arrives pre-enabled on hardware people already buy.
It also marks the first time an ad blocker ships switched on rather than installed, escalating a debate until then framed around extensions users deliberately added.
First-order effects
- Every Asus mobile device shipping with the proprietary browser from early 2016 carries active blocking out of the box, stripping ad impressions from publishers and networks on those devices without any user action.
- AdBlock Plus gains OEM-scale reach its standalone browser never achieved, making Asus — not individual users — the party deciding whether ads load.
Second-order effects
- Publishers and ad networks lose a slice of Android inventory they cannot attribute to user choice, pressuring them toward formats less likely to trip filters.
- Other handset makers now have a template for preloaded differentiation on Android, where stock browsers otherwise compete mainly on speed — expect rival OEMs to weigh similar deals.
Third-order effects
- The precedent points toward filtering decisions migrating from users to platform owners, a path Google itself later took when it announced it would preinstall an ad filter in Chrome starting early 2018 aimed at ads flagged as annoying — with the intermediary, not the reader, defining acceptable advertising.
The trend: Ad blocking is shifting from an optional user-installed extension to a default set by browser makers and hardware vendors, moving control over which ads survive upstream.