Ask HN: How much 'slower' do ads make the internet?

[ajc-sorin]

Is there a way to measure the speed loss when a website moves from having no ads to having ads?

[nitwit005]

Do you have a set of sites you frequent on your phone that have ads, but will otherwise function without Javascript? Try using those sites with and without Javascript disabled.

It's a bit depressing how much it drags some pages down.

[mars4rp → nitwit005]

Not all JS on the page are ads!

[nitwit005 → mars4rp]

That's what the "but will otherwise function without Javascript" bit was about.

[mfav]

Opera actually has this ability built-in. It lets you A/B test websites (with/without ads) by going to the URL "speedtest".

[viraptor]

The loading speed? You can install an ad blocker and enable/disable it. Then force-reload the page. You can also use the developer tools (for example in Chrome) to see the precise timing waterfall.

[jmg1138]

Could try using a browser add-on like noscript and then only whitelist the website's local scripts, to get an idea of how much faster it loads without the ad network tracking scripts.

[em_te]

You'll also need to average out the speed of your website accessed from different geographical locations.

[Rockvole]

You can try Pi-Hole which stops the ad and tracking DNS requests from getting through.