Not only do engineers at Purify Ad Blocker believe that their popular ad blocking app saves users more than 50 percent on data costs by blocking advertisements, they came to some “startling conclusions.”
When Purify engineers “examined over two dozen popular internet sites to measure how much users pay for the ads that typically accompany web content. The results were startling: users pay much more for ads than they do for content — more than doubling the cost of web browsing,” a statement provided to MMW reads.
The devil is in the details.
“Purify’s engineers determined that the cost to download a typical internet page averages 2.3¢ for content plus 3.1¢ for ads, for a total of 5.4¢,” according to the statement. “Medium data usage plans from the top mobile phone providers in the United States average about $10/GB of downloaded data, and costs in Europe tend to run even higher.”
That means that if an average user visits a dozen typical websites every day for a month, the cost to the user is approximately $11.16 to see the content and another $19.44 for the privilege of downloading the advertisements. (That’s more than $233 in a year’s time to view web-based ads that were never requested).
“Reports have shown that customers are paying dearly for these ads, as many websites devour data by pushing video and other invasive content within the ad,” explained Chris Aljoudi, Purify’s lead developer. “Purify Ad Blocker saves users money by automatically stopping these data-hungry ads from ever loading.”
Admittedly, the “social contract” that trades advertising for access to content is worth considering. But according to Purify, “the intrusive nature of advertisements on many of today’s websites costs customers much more than is widely acknowledged.”
“Purify’s design gives users complete control over their browsing experience, allowing users to determine if they want to support a site or not,” remarked Aljoudi. “Purify and other ad blockers will continue to thrive as long as consumers feel that data-hungry ads are too intrusive and degrade performance too much.”
