Ads can range anywhere from mildly annoying to downright intrusive, but online advertisements are part of our digital world, like it or not. They might present you with products that are in no way related to your life, or they may have enough information about you to persuade you into buying things that you may or may not need. However they find you, ads get annoying.
AdBlock Plus
AdBlock Plus is the most popular ad blocking software on the internet today and is available for Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Yandex web browsers. It’s also available on mobile devices.
AdBlock Plus works by having the user create filter lists. Basically you decide what you want the ad blocker to let through and what you want it to block out. You can choose to block all ads or only the blacklisted ones, allowing acceptable ads to come through.
Vivaldi Web Browser
Vivaldi is a web browser that has a multitude of awesome features, one of which is a built-in ad blocker. Along with the ad blocker, Vivaldi also has a built-in tracker blocker. Websites will no longer be able to track you or bombard you with ads as long as you are using the Vivaldi browser.
Vivaldi has an amazing amount of customizability within their browser, but the ad blocking and tracker blocking are the best default options of any web browser we’ve used. Vivaldi was created and spun-off from the Opera browser when Opera decided to switch to the Chromium-based Google software.
AdBlock
AdBlock, not to be confused with AdBlock Plus, is an independent ad blocking service that works with Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and mobile devices. AdBlock removes pop-up, pop-under, and third-party tacking ads from your browser experience. Along with this, they also provide some protection from malware and viruses while surfing the web.
AdBlock will also block YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook ads so you can carry on with updating your socials and spend less time navigating unwanted ads.
Ghostery
Ghostery is an ad blocker that adds a unique element to its ad blocking ability. Not only will it steer you clear of pop-ups and unwanted trackers, but it will tell you who is trying to track you and give you the option to deny the ones you don’t want. Ghostery enables customizability to really take control of your browsing and decide what you see and what you don’t, as well who does or doesn’t see you. Just recently, Ghostery launched a web browser with all of these features built in.
The Premium edition of Ghostery will provide you will access to Ghostery Insights, a tool designed to audit the trackers that are crawling your website, to identify privacy risks and optimize your page.
AdGuard
AdGuard is an ad blocking tool that does more than just stop ads from reaching your screen. AdGuard will block trackers from finding your data, protects you from phishing and malware attacks, as well as give you the option to enable parental controls and block certain content from being accessed by your children.
AdLock
AdLock is a stand-alone program that blocks pop-ups, banners, and video ads from your web browser as well as from the different programs and apps you use on your device. AdLock will warn you about suspicious websites as well as malware and other unwanted software.
Stands Fair Adblocker
Stands is an ad blocker that aims to hide the malicious ads, trackers, and malware from your device, while allowing through the respectful ads that websites rely on to survive. They refer to these respectful ads as “Fair Ads”. Through their browser extension, you can decide how many of these Fair Ads you want to let through or whitelist the websites that you want to support.
Stands also takes your privacy and data storage seriously. They are transparent about what they use your data for.
AdBlocker Ultimate
AdBlocker Ultimate is a stand-alone program that blocks out your pop-up ads, banner ads, video ads, sponsored content on social media pages, as well as the ads that appear atop your search results. On top of this, AdBlocker Ultimate will also block ads from all other programs on your device.
AdBlocker Ultimate has a free browser extension instead of their full-service version that will block ads, trackers, and malware.
Conclusion
While not all ads are bad ads, you likely want to limit the number of ads that you see while browsing the internet. They can be manipulative at worst and distracting at the best of times.
Whether you want to block them all, allow only the good ones, or find an option that will block ads across all of your programs, there is an ad blocker that suits your needs. We wish you happy, safe, and ad-free surfing!