All publishers need to run ads to keep the lights on. Nothing in this world comes for free and it applies to websites on internet as well. Most of the websites earn money by showing advertisements to the end user. For some, it is the only source of income to keep the website up and running. But sometimes it can go too far. Intrusive and irrelevant ads, irritating users struggling to focus on the things they were supposed to be doing in the first place. Then there is also the question of privacy. Some sites are very intrusive and tend to insert ads in every we page. They term it as cost of their services. Their is also another downside to this. Opera CTO Bruce Lawson recently quoted a report to say that over 50 percent of all Internet traffic is just ads. That means that half of the limited FUP of users is probably wasted on advertisements. This also indirectly means that we pages will load significantly faster if ads are blocked and not allowed to load in the first place.
If you want to take control of this and also save bandwidth then you’ve probably thought about installing an ad-blocker. If you’re wondering about how to block ads on the Internet, the best option is to just install an ad-blocker on your browser. For the sake of this blog, I will be talking about ad-blockers for Google Chrome since it is the one I currently use as primary. The options and steps are pretty simple and pretty similar even for other browsers such as Safari, Firefox or Opera.
Here are the ad block extensions for Chrome that I liked, and why I liked them.
1. AdBlock Plus
One of the best known ad blockers on the market is AdBlock Plus or ABP. It’s available on most browsers and has its own Android app as well. It is an install-and-forget app extension. ABP does allow some ads through – the advertisers have to meet some requirements to be ‘non-intrusive’ but it can be changed this in the settings. ABP also blocks video ads in YouTube, and all noisy ads, and it can be set it to block tracking, malware, and social media buttons.
2. AdBlock
Both AdBlock, and then AdBlock Plus, came up as two separate adblockers for Firefox. When Chrome came along, AdBlock was launched for Chrome by another developer, before the AdBlock Plus team started to support the browser. And so, despite not being connected, the two most popular ad blockers ended up with similar names. AdBlock works a lot like AdBlock plus. Install, leave the defaults on and just get browsing. With AdBlock, malware protection is on from the start. It can also be disabled on individual pages, not just sites, and all the resources it is blocking is also visible in real time to the user. It also allows to whitelist specific sites.
3. Ghostery
Perhaps the most comprehensive tracker blocker available, Ghostery has a slightly involved setup process. Once it is added in the browser, a setup page will open and it will list all the different types of trackers that it can watch out for, and giving the option of choosing which ones to block specifically. Most users will typically opt to block all, but do note that this can also disrupt some site functionality, such as chat assistance on sites, or comments sections. Ghostery is extremely popular, not just for the blocking, but also the analytics it does – at any time, information such as how many trackers are present on the site and info on what these trackers actually do.
Created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights group based in the US, Privacy Badger isn’t exactly an ad-blocker. Instead, it focuses on disallowing any visible or invisible third party scripts that can track you over the Internet. As it happens, most of these trackers are used for advertisements. This means that Privacy Badger does not block ads that are not otherwise harmful or tracking you. As a result, some ads will still show up. But at least it lets users know that what companies are spying on them through ads.
uBlock Origin has received praise from technology websites, and is reported to be much less memory-intensive than other extensions with similar functionality. uBlock Origin’s stated purpose is to give users the means to enforce their own (content-filtering) choices. It can also read and create filters from hosts files. Also, be aware that selecting some of these extra lists may lead to higher likelihood of web site breakage — especially those lists which are normally used as hosts file.
6. uBlock Origin
uBlock Origin has received praise from technology websites, and is reported to be much less memory-intensive than other extensions with similar functionality. uBlock Origin’s stated purpose is to give users the means to enforce their own (content-filtering) choices. It can also read and create filters from hosts files. Also, be aware that selecting some of these extra lists may lead to higher likelihood of web site breakage — especially those lists which are normally used as hosts file.
Personally, I use last three on chrome browser. I have tried all of them and felt that last three are the most efficient at both blocking ads as well as on the system resources. There are some rare occasions where the trio breaks the website but that’s the price I pay for uncluttered browsing experience. And I am happy with it. Here is the screenshot at the time of writing this blog where trio blocks more than 60 ads and other unnecessary stuff even from WordPress site itself!!!
Pass it on and let others know too. Thanks.