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Use this extension to block ads on websites and pre-ads on YouTube on your Chrome browser

Use this extension to block ads on websites and pre-ads on YouTube on your Chrome browser

Vote: (1,008 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Getadblock.com

Version: 5.3.0

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(1,008 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

Getadblock.com

5.3.0

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • Blocks obtrusive advertising
  • Makes sites resolve much faster
  • Clears out commercials on YouTube and other video services

Cons

  • Only works with Google branded Chrome distributions
  • May cause some sites to malfunction

AdBlock Chrome stops annoying advertising content from loading on your Google Chrome-based browser. The program installs as a standard extension, so it should work with any version of Chrome running on a modern PC. Whenever Chrome updates, AdBlock will do a quick check to make sure that it will still work well with the new version of the software that you have running.

This makes it easy to keep harmful content blotted out of your browsing experience. International users will also appreciate the fact that the app offers you a choice of over 30 different languages. That should help those who want to improve their experience across a variety of devices loaded with system software made for an equally diverse set of locales.

One of the things that really sets AdBlock Chrome apart from the tools built into the browser is that it blocks nearly all third-party tracking snippets. You won't have to worry about getting some kind of cookie that will follow you from one end of the web to the other when you rely on this software to keep you secure. That's because it prevents these little pieces of code from executing on your system in the first place.

Privacy advocates have been complaining for some time about the possibility of WebASM or JavaScript-based malware that enters your system as a cookie. AdBlock Chrome protects fairly well against these kinds of infections because it stops their initial attack vector.

Users who aren't overly concerned with privacy will still appreciate the fact that AdBlock Chrome works on YouTube links to help block out video advertising. Though YouTube ads are notoriously difficult to put a stop to, AdBlock is able to prevent over 90 percent of them from loading.

Those that do make it through can usually be skipped, which makes it much easier to binge watch entire channels' worth of content. Since tracking services can't load in the first place, these ads will be generic. That saves you the problem of having to deal with targeted commercials.

Users who are interested in statistics will be pleased to know that the app shows the number of ads that it blocks on a daily basis. You could also theoretically view a number of other stats, but most users will probably be uninterested in how well the program is working once it's configured. After all, it's obviously that the app works very well.

Many people will find the app's option to block out certain domains selectively to be more useful. This feature gives you the chance to type in a few blanket domains that you'd simply prefer to never have resources load from. If you're getting ads that AdBlock isn't capable of parsing, then you can simply enter the domain that they're serving from. AdBlock will then prevent all resources from that domain from ever opening in your browser even if they aren't part of an advertisement.

Some people might also use this as a way to prevent people from loading certain sites through the network connection on their workgroup. For example, you could block out a popular social media site and then no one logged into your workgroup could access it through a company router. Educational providers might use this technique to keep students from loading sites that could be deemed offensive in a classroom. While most users of AdBlock would naturally support a free and unfettered web, this does provide users to protect themselves from potentially dangerous content that would otherwise compromise their networks.

Granted, the fact that AdBlock eliminates tracking cookies means that some sites may end up malfunctioning since they rely on this technology to work. Some users will certainly run into problems with this. Others will say that people shouldn't make extensive use of sites that track you and compromise your privacy anyway.

Those who have older hardware or slower connections may even experience greatly enhanced browsing speeds. Since AdBlock stops invasive content from loading, your CPU won't waste any cycles rendering it. On top of this, your modem won't ever have to source the packets needed to put it together.

Sites that feature a huge amount of action will probably experience the biggest difference. If a site contains more than 50 percent advertising, then it will load over twice as fast on a machine equipped with AdBlock Chrome compared to one that doesn't use it.

Machines that tend to get overheated as a result of loading web content will also see a marked improvement as a result of this feature. Power users might want to tweak Chrome's internal settings to work even more effectively with AdBlock.

By editing a few flags, you can enable a reader mode that samples long articles into a single page of content. AdBlock Chrome will then proceed to block out advertising content while the underlying rendering engine will pull out everything that's unnecessary. That makes it that much easier to focus on what you're doing without getting distracted by promotional links. This also eliminates unnecessary videos and other material that developers sometimes put on news and technology sites to attract readers. While this doesn't normally constitute advertising, it's annoying and this combination helps to eliminate it.

Advertisers are always coming up with new ways to promote material on the web. Fortunately, AdBlock Chrome has you covered by constantly updating its definitions to keep you from being exposed to any new tricks.

That makes it a flexible solution that some users might very well consider a prerequisite to install before they start to browse the web with Chrome. While it might not block every ad you come across, it certainly comes close enough that you'd be unlikely to notice. In fact, most users will probably never see an advertisement again from the moment that they install it.

Pros

  • Blocks obtrusive advertising
  • Makes sites resolve much faster
  • Clears out commercials on YouTube and other video services

Cons

  • Only works with Google branded Chrome distributions
  • May cause some sites to malfunction