For consumers not content with the glut of ad-blocking extensions and plugins available, the co-founder of Mozilla and creator of Javascript, Brendan Eich, has just launched a web browser that blocks ads from the get-go.
In a model befitting of its name, Brave will replace the ads it blocks with those of its own, while pocketing 15% of the generated revenue. A further will go 55% to the publisher and 15% to the ad supplier.
That leaves 15%, which Brave claims will go back to the user to be spent in Bitcoin payments to websites of their choice.
Technology blog arstechnica points out that for in order for its model to work, Brave will have to simultaneously connect with and block ads from major advertising networks, which throws up a whole host of questions over the concept’s viability.
‘Game over’
Brave does however represent a deliberately new direction into ad blocking from a heavyweight internet company.
It’s been enough to reignite some of that hyperbole we heard midway through last year, following PageFair’s estimates that $22 billion has been lost in ad spend thanks to ad-blocking software.
“It really looks like ‘Game Over’ for traditional online advertising and Eich’s new company corroborates that,” said Richard Jones, CEO at digital engagement platform, EngageSciences.
Instead, Jones believes advertisers have little choice but to rely on a future of “peer to peer networking” and “word of mouth”.
Technical details of Brave have so far been scant, and it’s not yet known whether the browser will be any faster than its counterparts, or whether its replacement ads will be any less intrusive.
So far the company has raised £1.75 million in investment, while Eich is putting a target of 7 million users in order to prove there’s a market for it.
The browser is set to land on Windows, OS X, Android and iOS later this year.