Re: [tor-talk] ads slow Tor Browser dramatically

[adrelanos <adrelanos@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Btfsplk:
> On 11/4/2012 5:45 AM, andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> On Fri, Nov 02, 2012 at 01:06:50PM -0500, joebtfsplk@xxxxxxx wrote
>> 1.3K bytes in 26 lines about:
>> : TBB is already slow, which is understandable.  Using "stock" TBB
>> : that allows ads & possibly other items increasing bandwidth is far
>> : slower on many sites - even news sites - than same TBB version w/
>> : just AdBlock Plus.
>>
>> Can you quantify this performance difference between TBB with ads and
>> TBB without ads?
>>
> Sure, I could.  If a Tor dev w/ "the power to make changes" says
> blocking ads would definitely be considered, if data were provided
> showing increase in data downloaded & longer page load times. Otherwise,
> would be an exercise in futility.

Yes, there is far greater scientific research and no action was taken.
This one doesn't need numbers to quantity the performance gain. It's too
obvious. Just like the earth isn't flat. There is no more proof
required. Almost everyone who ever used Adblock will have felt the
performance and user experience boost.

> Forget speed for now - the additional data load of all ads on the entire
> Tor network has to be large.  No tests needed to figure that out. 

Yes.

> Whether it's a good idea to block ALL ads is another subject.

It's a question if torproject want to go the "web cleaning way". It has
pros and cons.

Torproject also didn't want to go the "clean protocol way", i.e.
creating a Tor-Firefox bundle. They were forced to do so. "Tor in theory
worked somewhat reasonable well enough", but browser fingerprinting
destroyed all the anonymity. TBB was created to address these issues.

Will TBB due to ads ever be that slow that the anonymity given by Tor
and browser fingerprinting defense (TBB) alone just don't make it? If
yes, they will probable go the "web cleaning way".

Adblock-like addon pros:
- Obvious, fewer traffic, faster loading times, better user experience.

Adlbock-like addon cons:
- Would Tor put into a light that they are anti commercial, while they
need the commercials to succeed. If many big ad companies start a
campaign against Tor and talk their clients into banning Tor also for
reading, because "Tor is bad", it's virtually game over for Tor.
Torproject does well by not challenging far bigger players.

I think the right way would be to give people the freedom of choice and
let them decide to opt-in for an ad blocker.
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