Impact of ad blockers on computer power consumption: a comparative analysis of browser ad on and built-in browsers feature

Khan, Khan Awais (2025) Impact of ad blockers on computer power consumption: a comparative analysis of browser ad on and built-in browsers feature. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The increasing prevalence of online advertisements has driven the widespread use of ad blockers, which aim to enhance user experience by reducing unwanted content. However, the impact of ad blockers on system power consumption, particularly across different hardware configurations and ad-blocking implementations, remains underexplored. This thesis provides a comprehensive investigation into the energy use of ad blockers in various computing environments, including systems with AI accelerators, ARM-based processors, and browsers equipped with built-in ad-blocking features. The research comprises a multi-faceted analysis of power consumption influenced by ad blockers under different hardware and software conditions. First, the study explores the use of ad blockers in systems integrated with AI accelerators, comparing traditional CPU/GPU-based methods to AI-enhanced approaches. It was observed that ad blockers such as uBlock Origin and uBlock Origin Lite, when paired with AI acceleration, achieved significant reductions in power usage and memory consumption, particularly for multimedia-heavy websites. Further investigation targets the energy implications of ad blockers on ARM-based CPUs, which are widely utilized in mobile and embedded systems. A detailed comparative analysis across multiple browsers—including Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi, and Firefox—revealed that the combination of efficient browsers (like Brave and Kiwi) with lightweight ad blockers (such as uBlock) resulted in an approximate 15% reduction in power consumption compared to traditional setups without ad-blocking features. This emphasizes the importance of the optimal pairing between browsers and ad blockers to achieve enhanced energy efficiency in low-power environments. Additionally, this thesis examines the efficiency of browsers with integrated ad-blockers, such as Brave, Opera, and Librewolf, compared to standard browsers without built-in ad-blocking. Results indicate that these integrated ad-blockers significantly reduce CPU and GPU workloads, resulting in up to 44% lower power consumption, especially when browsing video-heavy websites. These findings demonstrate the potential of integrating ad-blocking features directly into browser architecture to achieve meaningful energy savings, thereby extending battery life for mobile devices and reducing overall energy demands. Lastly, a comparative analysis of popular ad blockers—AdBlock, AdBlock Plus, Ghostery, uBlock, and uBlock Origin—across different content types and website categories highlighted substantial variations in energy efficiency. The results underscore that while ad blockers generally contribute to reduced power usage, their effectiveness is influenced by factors such as the type of online content and specific ad-blocking technology used. Media-rich websites particularly benefit from the use of lightweight and well-optimized ad blockers, which significantly decrease system resource consumption. Overall, the findings presented in this thesis provide new insights into optimizing power consumption in web browsing through the strategic use of ad blockers. By demonstrating the benefits of different ad-blocking strategies across various computing environments, this research contributes to sustainable computing practices, offering practical guidelines for users, developers, and policymakers aiming to reduce energy consumption and promote efficient digital technologies.

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