Adblockers now "official" on the Mac too

9 November 2015, 01:05


With iOS 9 Apple infamously made it possible to block ads (and other unwanted content) in Safari on the iPhone and iPad.

Did you know they also made it possible to block them on the Mac’s version of Safari too? This is something of a moot point because there already several very good ad blocker extensions for Safari, such as uBlock.

The difference now is that (a) Apple’s given content blocking its blessing and (b) the means of doing so are buried within Safari’s code, so there’s no need for extensions to use hacks or other clever methods that might slow the browsing experience.

iMore lists a couple of dedicated blockers:

Since the iMore list was compiled, JS Blocker 5 has been released too and, if you’re reading this in Finland, then you might be interested in Adblocker for Finland.

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Tried them all.

NoThirdParty turns a website to early 90’s text, useless.

Best so far is Wipr. At least, when I’ve tried the others, I end up back to Wipr.

But I’ve run into a lot of problems with it and the others. None of them do much of anything related to social media buttons, which are nearly as annoying as ads. Still get pop ups, ads on youtube. Some sites won’t load, or pictures, or videos.

It also does weird things to YouTube. Not just the delay, but sometimes won’t play videos; or you get audio but no video, etc. Problems with other videos on other sites too. Some site don’t load properly.

It’s a REAL work in progress, compared to ABP, ADB, or uBlock.

BUT…… they are “initially” faster. But I think they get slower as time goes on. And the problems are NOT worth the small benefit. At least, so far…..

— billybobby · Nov 11, 09:33 PM · #

 
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