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We have all been there. You click a link for a simple recipe, and suddenly your phone looks like Las Vegas. Banners drop from the top, a video starts playing in the corner, and the page jumps around so much that you accidentally click an ad for a blender you didn’t even want.
It is annoying, but annoyance is actually the least of your problems.
Today, we are looking under the hood of your Android phone. Before I show you how to block these ads, you need to understand why this matters. Once you see how the modern internet works, you will never look at your mobile browser the same way again.
The Invisible Auction: Why Your Phone Feels Slow
When you type a web address and hit “Go,” you probably think your phone is just asking a server to send you an article. But behind the scenes, in the milliseconds before that page loads, a frantic, invisible auction is taking place.
Your browser effectively shouts to the entire internet ecosystem: “Hey, I have a user here looking at sports news. They live in this zip code and were recently shopping for shoes. Who wants to show them an ad?”.
Computers bid against each other in real-time, a winner is chosen, and the ad is pushed to your screen. This happens in the blink of an eye, but there is a catch.
Ads aren’t just pictures anymore; they are heavy, complex pieces of software called “scripts”. When these scripts load, they eat up your:
Memory (RAM)
Processing Power
Battery Life
Mobile Data: You are literally paying for the data required to download the ads that annoy you.
