How to Block/Remove Ads on Chrome, IE and Firefox

Looking for a way to easily remove those big, annoying ads you see on some of your favorite sites? These types of ads are called intrusive ads and they can be really frustrating because they can start playing videos without your permission, make weird or strange sounds, or grow to full page size and block what you are reading! These are types of ads that are becoming more common because they make you look at or interact with them, which is what advertisers want.

Fortunately, there are many different ways to block these types of ads. Also, just to clarify, I think obsessive ad blocking is a good thing. I don’t believe in blocking all ads, because millions of sites use non-intrusive ads to make money. Here at Online Tech Tips, all of my income comes from a few advertisements posted on the site. I have three image ads on my site: one at the top, one in the sidebar, and one at the bottom. I also use text link ads but generally don’t find my ads intrusive.

Without advertising, I would hardly make any money, and I would have to go back to work! Therefore, please do not block all ads, but only those that you find excessive or intrusive. In this article, I will introduce my favorite ad blocker plugin that works with IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc. And follows the rule of blocking only intrusive ads.

Adblock is a plus

Adblock Plus is the best ad blocking solution because it is used by millions and is actively monitored by the community to ensure that the right types of content are blocked. Adblock Plus mainly relies on filter lists, which are a large set of rules that tell Adblock Plus what content to block on a particular website. It can also be used to block tracking and malware.

After installing the extension, two lists are enabled by default: an ad blocking list for your specific language and an ad exclusion list. You can turn off the exclusion list if you want, but again, the world would be a better place if you didn’t! The exclusion list is very strict about what is allowed and there are a number of rules that a website must follow in order for ads to appear, so you’ll rarely see annoying ads bypassing the filter.

If you find annoying ads, you can help by reporting that ad, and when others report the same ad, it will be blocked for future Adblock Plus users. Here’s an example of a frequently visited website with and without ads:

There are a few things you need to know when installing an extension. First, the best browsers to install Adblock Plus are Opera, Firefox and Chrome. They have the most features and functions. After that, you’ll still have great overall experience, but with less IE and Safari. Safari does not allow deep code access, so some advertisements may appear as in-video ads, etc. However, Safari has one good thing: it uses the same codebase as Chrome and Opera, therefore, of these browsers updated, they will all receive the update.

IE is so complex that it requires a completely different installation process in the form of an EXE installer file. It can still be installed quickly, but you cannot customize it at all. As far as I can tell, there is no way to turn off the allowed ad exclusion list in IE because you can’t open the add-on options.

The only thing I noticed about Adblock Plus, as I have been using it for several weeks, is that it does block a lot of ads that I don’t find intrusive. Website owners can apply to be banned from ad blocking on their websites as long as they adhere to strict ad-blocking guidelines, but it would be nice if the plugin wasn’t as aggressive in blocking ads by default. This is just my opinion. If you’ve used Adblock Plus, please share your opinion with us. If you have any other questions about ad blocking, let us know in the comments. Enjoy!

–