Adblock Plus now has its own browser for Android

The makers of the popular Adblock Plus extension today announced Adblock Browser for Android, a smartphone browser that blocks online advertisements out of the box. While Adblock Plus was briefly available as an Android app, Google took it down, saying that it could interfere with other applications.

"Building our own browser gives us a lot more freedom to integrate adblocking as a first class feature that’s easy to understand and configure," wrote Adblock lead developer Felix Dahlke in an official blogpost.

Adblock operations manager Ben Williams says that using Adblock Browser can result in faster, safer web browsing.

"Ads cause pages to load slower and can consume 23 percent of your battery. Loading ads also costs data, so blocking them on your mobile browser saves you on your data plan," wrote Williams. "Malware often hides behind ads, even on trusted networks. Blocking annoying ads reduces your risk of infection, and Adblock Plus has been recommended by Stanford University, UC Santa Barbara and the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

Based on the mobile version of Firefox, Adblock Browser utilises a similar interface, but will eventually move in its own direction. Other forthcoming features will include broader configuration options, and the ability to synchronise with a variety of desktop browsers.

An iOS version of Adblock Browser is also on the cards.

Adblock Browser is currently available as an open beta. Users wishing to trial the browser will have to join Adblock's beta testing community on Google Plus, and manually download and install the application file.