Technology Tips – Published June 2022 in the Guide and Digest
By Don Trauger – Kennett
I wrote about ad blockers in Dec. 2020 and now is the time to revisit the subject to see which ones are best. You may have heard of the term but you may be unsure as to what all they do. Ad blockers are small apps that only work when they are added to your web browser such as Chrome or Edge. They are referred to as extensions or add-ons. Their main purpose is to block ads that can slow the loading speed of web pages. Of course, the benefit is that you see few or no ads on the web page you entered in your browser. However, there’s more to an ad blocker than just blocking ads.
Having an ad blocker installed can also give you an unseen benefit. Ads can carry malware so if you block ads, you gain added protection over and above what your anti-virus program offers. So, which one is best? Using my personal testing it’s still AdBlock Plus by a small margin.
One thing I found out during my testing is that Microsoft’s Edge has better native security characteristics than either Google’s Chrome or Firefox. When Edge is configured to “Strict” mode, Edge made less work for the extensions tested. You can read my previous article about Edge here: https://hersheysmill.org/?s=Edge.
Although AdBlock Plus is my #1 recommendation, Adblocker Ultimate also does a good job. In testing I have run up to 5 ad blockers and 2 other anti-tracking extensions at the same time and there were no problems. The only thing I noticed was a very slight increase in page loading time of about 1 second.
To improve your security when using a browser install AdBlock Plus and AdBlocker Ultimate. To increase your privacy also add Disconnect. It prevents web sites from planting trackers that can follow you from site to site adding more potential unwanted ads and who knows what else. One other extension that I like is TrafficLight. Every time you do a Google search it places a green check next to each individual result. That means it’s safe to click the result.
Installing an ad blocker is quite easy. For Chrome, open the program, click the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner and navigate to “More tools” then click “Extensions”. On the upper left side click the 3 horizontal bars. At the bottom, click “Open Chrome Web Store.” In the “Search the store” field type “adblock plus” (no quotes) and press the keyboard’s Enter key. You should see the Adblock Plus icon. Click it to add to Chrome and follow any screen prompts. For the Microsoft Edge browser, open Edge then click the 3 horizontal dots in the upper right of the window, then click “Extensions”. Click “Manage extensions.” Scroll to the bottom and click “Chrome Web Store.” Follow the above instructions for adding Adblock Plus for Chrome to Edge. Add AdBlocker Ultimate using the same basic procedure. Notice that you can also add more extensions to Edge from the Chrome Web Store. That’s because Edge was developed using the same platform as Chrome. Note: Disconnect and TrafficLight can be added to Edge using the Chrome Web Store. Just follow the previous procedure for adding Adblock Plus for Chrome. After you click the selected icon, you will see a prompt to “Add to Chrome” even though you are using Edge follow the prompts.
After installation check to make sure the extensions are configured for maximum protection. For all extensions right click the newly added icon at the top right of the browser’s window and click “Options” (Chrome) or “Extension options” (Edge). For Adblock Plus, choose to “Block additional tracking,” “Block cookie warnings,” “Block push notifications” and “Block social media icons tracking.” Also, uncheck “Show Acceptable Ads.” For Adblocker Ultimate all options should be on, or green. TrafficLight options should be on, or blue. Disconnect has no configurable options.
That’s it for ad blockers but there are thousands of extensions you can add to browsers to enhance their usefulness. Just don’t add too many!