No More Ads

Google’s main competitor in the mobile space—added a feature to their devices that allowed users to block ads.

Devices running iOS were responsible for as much as 75% of Google’s revenue from mobile search ads, which is probably why Google was paying Apple billions of dollars every year to remain the default search engine on Apple devices. By making this move, Apple altered the future of online advertising.

This move from Apple reflected the unprecedented mainstream adoption of ad blocking software happening at the time.