Did you know how pervasive and intrusive ad networks are? One day I was at an Apple store to check out the latest MacBook (I’m still a Windows user…), and as I opened a few tabs of my most visited websites, it shocked me – the number of ads and pop ups that littered the page all over the place…
Have you seen those creepy ads that follow you everywhere? (e.g. you looked at an item on Amazon, then afterward every website you see has that item on banner ads) Those are called product re-targetting ads. And of course there are many other kinds.
If you want to
- Save Time and Bandwidth (especially on mobile)
- Stay Focused on your Task (and avoid click baits)
- Prevent Pop ups and Malware (that seem to follow you everywhere)
Consider using tools to protect your security and privacy (sanity too).
Coming back to my experience on the new Mac – I was shocked because I have been using ad-blocker pretty much since they were available. So like having lived in the Matrix (little ads) and seeing the real world (lots of… ads) for the first time / since a long time, I was just very shocked how most people are experiencing the web nowadays. The sparkly high performance new Mac will not help unfortunately.
This is not a review site so I will not compare the many solutions available. I use and will suggest you check out:
Adblock Plus – Self-explanatory, Simple and Effective. It is an Open Source project and currently active on over 100 million devices. I have started using the Chrome extension pretty much since I started using Chrome.
Updated (Jan 2019): Since the blog was posted, there has been a few updates to ABP that increased the computer resources required to run the service. I noticed a performance decline myself and it’s shared by many others. If you share the experience, try:
uBlock Origin – A lighter ad-blocker with less features but uses much less memory and CPU cycles.
Disconnect Improves Privacy. It cuts out the passing of personal and navigation information between websites and ad exchanges. It was eye-opening to see how many parties are following what we do online (and trying to get a piece of the action). The Chrome extension provides a visual map on all the sites that are pinged while serving content on the site you see.
Give them a try. Do a before and after test on your favourite news or shopping site. The results will surprise you. You can whitelist sites that you know and trust, and uninstall if you decide it is not for you.
