Microsoft: tell us if you want us to build an ad blocker into Edge

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 14, 2019
Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge
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20

Microsoft's Edge development team held an interesting AMA on Reddit yesterday. AMA, for those who don't know, is a questions and answers type of thread in which Reddit users post questions or remarks to individuals, teams, or company representatives.

Microsoft is working on a new version of the Edge browser that is based on Chromium code; that's the same basis that Google Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, or Brave use for their browsers.

The browser is available as a preview for Windows and Mac operating systems but it is only a matter of time before it replaces the current version of Microsoft Edge that is only available in Windows 10.

One of the questions that Microsoft's Edge team was asked repeatedly was how Microsoft plans to react to Google's extension changes in the Manifest V3 that would impact ad blockers if released right now.

The team noted that it was still evaluating Manifest V3 and that it was not ready to release an official comment about it at the time. It noted, however, that it recognizes that ad blocking is important to a lot of users and that the team started several things to address this.

microsoft edge ad blocker built-in

Besides being a member of the Coalition for Better Ads, Microsoft's Edge Development Team noted that it was "committed to a strong extension ecosystem" and that this included ad blocking. Microsoft would not "artificially restrict ad blocking for business reasons related to advertising" and that the company got requests to integrate an ad blocking experience into the Edge browser.

Microsoft's stance in regards to that is that it believes that extensions offer the best option right now, but that it would love to hear from users who think ad blocking should be built-in.

Finally, we occasionally hear requests for a built in ad blocking experiences in Edge. For most users, we find that extensions (combined with strong defaults around tracking prevention) are the best option here because you can choose from a variety of experiences and defaults, but we absolutely want to hear from you if you think this should be built in.

While that does not mean that Edge will get built-in ad blocking, it is certainly a possibility and not outright rejected by Microsoft.

Integration of an ad blocker could certainly improve the browser's chance of becoming more successful than the classic version of Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer. The new Edge offers some features already that set it apart from Google Chrome.

Now You: Would you like to see ad blocking built-into Microsoft Edge?

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Microsoft: tell us if you want us to build an ad blocker into Edge
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Microsoft: tell us if you want us to build an ad blocker into Edge
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In a recent AMA on Reddit, the Microsoft Edge dev team told users to tell them if they wanted an ad blocker build into the Edge browser.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. gibberishly said on June 18, 2019 at 5:44 pm
    Reply

    No ad blocker bruh. IF browsers blocked ads by default than those of use who go out of the way to install our own choice of adlocker will be affected by more aggresive approaches by site admins to deter “leaches” aka adblockers from not making any profit and wee size is the second most important for the non man site admins if pocket money is the first than we are truly endangered as soy dripping tiny tube having undesirables. we don’t stand a chance against the well establish, it’s by design.

  2. Anonymous said on June 16, 2019 at 5:25 pm
    Reply

    They have OneDrive ads in file explorer !!!! and dare to talk about ads? The ads of others are bad, our ads are gooood. Typical Microsoft.

  3. John IL said on June 15, 2019 at 3:34 pm
    Reply

    Not much on blocking ads, some are annoying for sure. But I still want a free accessible web without web sites going to a paywall just because some people are obsessed with blocking ads. I don’t get it myself, I see ads everywhere its part of the compromise to access something for free. I would rather see a option to tag sites as being too ad intrusive and possible mark them as user unfriendly. Maybe reduced visits would get the web sites to reduce ad exposure. Blocking ads in my opinion has not done anything to affect ads on web sites. If anything sites have increased ads to make up for lost revenue.

  4. John Doe 101 said on June 15, 2019 at 10:59 am
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    uBlockOrigin does it all, no need to implement one,…^^

  5. Anonymous said on June 14, 2019 at 10:59 pm
    Reply

    Sounds good on first thought but on second a lighter browser with the option to add any extensions the user wants is better. If a decent ad-blocker cannot be added via extension, on my system the reincarnation of Edge will get identical use to the original.

  6. 420 said on June 14, 2019 at 8:00 pm
    Reply

    I love how they word stuff, we occasionaly hear requests for built in ad blocking, lol what complete bullshit, cause you know most people want to see ads right? The fact that they wonder if it is something people want is amusing. Now with firefox going to cash in on ad blocking I guess I will be forced to use palemoon until it is no longer viable.

  7. Joe Plumber said on June 14, 2019 at 5:54 pm
    Reply

    As long as their stance on data collection doesn’t change, it’s hard to fathom that anybody would trust them with an Ad Blocker

    1. jern said on June 15, 2019 at 5:26 am
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      I Agree. I use an adblocker to cut down on connections to third party websites. At this point, for Win10 users MS is the biggest third party website. I’m not certain what difference an adblocker would make to Edge. I doubt there is ANY way to shut down MS’s telemetry through a browser.

  8. seeprime said on June 14, 2019 at 4:34 pm
    Reply

    I’ll believe Microsoft, as a company and not as an engineer on reddit, is serious when Windows 10 Home and Pro no longer force unwanted games and apps onto the Start screen.

  9. ilev said on June 14, 2019 at 4:25 pm
    Reply

    Just NO to Integration of an ad blocker. Integrating ad blocker brings always white lists of ads.

  10. zakius said on June 14, 2019 at 4:18 pm
    Reply

    not just any adblocker, make it full fledged blocker on par with uB0 + uM combo or it won’t be worth anything
    and while at that fix other chromium shortcomings

  11. Peter said on June 14, 2019 at 3:43 pm
    Reply

    Yes please, make it one with a hidden whitelist like for flash.
    https://www.ghacks.net/2019/02/21/about-microsoft-edges-secret-flash-whitelist/

  12. user17843 said on June 14, 2019 at 3:41 pm
    Reply

    no way their bosses allow this.

  13. Anonymous said on June 14, 2019 at 3:11 pm
    Reply

    If anything happens, the built-in content blocking will probably be, like in Chrome and Firefox, weaker than in ublock origin, and backed with various corporate lies that better blocking would be ultimately bad for the users (ads are for your own good, or too many sites would break…).

  14. ULBoom said on June 14, 2019 at 1:55 pm
    Reply

    Yes, of course.

    When MS says “…you can choose from a variety of experiences and defaults…”, which grammatically makes no sense at all, they’ll likely add some perfunctory ad blocking for domains that can easily be skirted.

    Edge’s current default home page is so badly ad cluttered it’s even worse than those obnoxious loud ad screens stuck to gas pumps.

    Brave’s the only Chromium worth considering for privacy; I can’t imagine Chromedgium being anything worth using. On the plus side, Windows Updates have improved from thermonuclear to scorched earth, at least for now, so who knows?

    1. Anonee said on June 15, 2019 at 6:12 am
      Reply

      @ULBoom, yucky! Not that bravium crap!
      If I use chromium, it’ll either be base chromium or edge.

    2. zakius said on June 14, 2019 at 4:21 pm
      Reply

      I don’t get all that brave lovers flood everywhere, it’s just chromium with all it’s problems, nothing more, it’s not worth anything and people making it should either stop wasting their time or start making a proper browser
      of course the same goes to chropera, vivaldi, quantumfox (it deliberately became as limited as chromium, yuck!)

      1. ULBoom said on June 14, 2019 at 9:04 pm
        Reply

        @zakius
        Not a Brave lover at all, I use FF ESR.

        Brave is, AFAIK, the only reasonably private Chromium in that they turn off or disable tracking features and use a proxy for those that can’t be disabled or removed.

        https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Deviations-from-Chromium-(features-we-disable-or-remove)

        I tried Brave when it first came out and didn’t particularly like it but it seems to have evolved considerably since then, eg., it now supports most chrome extensions. May try it again but no reason to move from FF.

      2. zakius said on June 15, 2019 at 12:02 am
        Reply

        no reason to use quantumfox either since it’s as limited as chromium, I just want a browser that does its job properly

  15. chesscanoe said on June 14, 2019 at 1:23 pm
    Reply

    Built in Edge ad blocking would make unsophisticated users switch to Edge, and provide a reference standard other extensions could be evaluated against.

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