iOS 9 Content Blocking Extensions Are Not a Mobile Advertising Armageddon

Interesting piece by Baldur Bjarnason, arguing that WebKit’s new content-blocking APIs are about blocking JavaScript tracking scripts, not ad blocking:

iOS 9 content blocking extensions have the potential to improve web performance on a massive scale.

Browser vendors like Firefox and Apple have a very compelling reason for blocking tracking scripts: they are some of the most misbehaving scripts on the web, a Mozilla study revealed that blocking these scripts results in an on average decrease in loading time of about 44%.

Excessive and badly designed tracking scripts are one half of the problem that is plaguing the web (the other half being a web development culture that isn’t interested in performance and accessibility).

★ Saturday, 20 June 2015