Microsoft looking to support ad blockers in Edge web browser

A Microsoft logo is seen on an office building in New York City, July 28, 2015.

Reuters/Mike Segar

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it was working on bringing ad blocker support through third-party extensions into the next version of its Edge web browser.

Tech website ZDNet reported earlier in the day that Microsoft was building an ad blocker into the next version of its Edge web browser, citing a slide from the company’s developer conference on Wednesday.

Microsoft said it was not building its own ad blocker.

Microsoft Edge replaced Internet Explorer as the default browser in Windows 10.

Faster-loading web pages, increased privacy and security and less intrusive web browsing are the key reasons for growing demand for ad blockers.

However, the growing popularity of ad blockers is hurting the growth of online advertising sales.

(Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian and Kirti Pandey)