[shuzchen]

"And yet not a single browser vendor offers ad blocking, instead relying on optional third-party plugins, because this breaks their business model and how they make money.".

I'm actually happy when browsers keep their core features as lean as possible and instead do the work that enable plugin creators to create functionality. More true for ad-blocking, where you want the plugin to be updated more often than the browser itself (e.g., for newer lists, new techniques for detecting ads).

[throwaway9101]

Adblock plugins slurp down new lists without updating the plugin code itself. Newer techniques, sure, but I don't think ABP's release cycle is substantially faster than Firefox's.

[Ralith]

It could still make sense to ship an ad blocking plugin with the browser distribution.