Cloudflare makes online ads 5x faster, safer with Firebolt

Cloudflare, an internet performance and security company, has announced Firebolt, a solution that speeds up and secures ad delivery. Firebolt enables ad networks to improve the ad viewing experience for increased conversions and helps publishers monetize their online content.

Web ads are often slow and unsafe, an undesirable experience that drives users to download ad blockers, bypassing them completely. When ad blockers are used, or even when the ads are loaded slowly and users simply leave the page, advertisers and publishers lose out on crucial impressions. Cloudflare’s Firebolt fixes these problems to benefit publishers, advertisers, and end users by making ads load faster, serving them over secure connections, and verifying that they are malware-free.

“Slow, malware-ridden ads drive end users to install ad blockers, and unfortunately, that means publishers lose the ability to make money off broadly accessible content,” explained Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “Cloudflare's Firebolt addresses the end user concerns of slow, unsafe online advertising, helping ensure that publishers can get paid for their content while still making it available to the broad Internet.”

Key features include

Faster Ad Load Times: Cloudflare's global network of 102 data centers in 50 countries, combined with routing and performance technologies, makes the delivery of online ads to any device up to six times faster.

Increased Security: Firebolt takes an in-depth approach to preventing the spread of malvertising by automatically enabling browser security features and cryptographically signing validated AMP ads. This reduces the risk of malware and other attacks and ensures that all ads delivered are HTTPS.

Support for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for Ads: Firebolt enables any independent ad network to leverage the new AMP ad format easily.