Mozilla launches a new iOS ad-blocker called Focus

Ad-blockers have been around for quite some time for desktop machines connected to the ‘net, but for iOS users, the experience is just getting off the ground.
And in a big way, with plenty of different ad-blockers already available in the iOS App Store for those that don’t want to see advertisements on websites they visit on their mobile devices. Now Mozilla is getting in on the fun, too, as initially reported by Forbes. The new ad-blocker, which is currently rolling out into the iOS App Store, is called Focus.

The new option retrieves its blacklist from Disconnect.me, which is a browser plug-in that boasts upwards of 5,000 trackers, of which many have been, or still are, associated with advertisement networks. Add to that, Focus will use heuristics to identify any content that happens to follow a user from one site to another, and squash the tracker on the fly.
Right now, Focus only works with Safari, due to the restrictions that Apple has in place within iOS to manage content blockers. Mozilla, for its part, is hoping that Apple changes that strategy at some point in the future, so users can use Focus with Firefox.
A link to download Focus is available below, but it might not be available just yet by the time of publication.
Download

• Mozilla Focus — Free

[via Forbes]

Posted in: android, Apple iPhone, News iPhone/ iPod, Rumor