basically, ublock origin on PC, tends to work well, I don't really see ads except for when the content creator plugs a product directly in their content.
There's nothing too unexpected in this post. Firefox + uBlock is pretty much standard now. It's been impossible to recommend Chrome ever since Google moved to manifest v3, which can only be described as deliberate anti-privacy enshittification. The recaptcha solver is starting to become niche, since cloudflare has really taken over (for better or worse).
I would add one more useful tool though: A user-agent switcher[1]. There are still some websites that insist you must use Chrome (or sometimes Edge). They will block you if you try to use them with Firefox, even though they work perfectly well and sometimes even better on Firefox than they do on Chrome. A user-agent switcher gives you the option to simply uninstall Chrome for good.
e.g. My ISP provides a website for streaming live TV (e.g. sports) that claims to be incompatible with Firefox, but actually runs better (i.e. fewer glitches) on it than it does on Chrome. However, it refuses to load on Firefox unless you use a user-agent switcher.
Why do people write websites that refuse to run based on user-agent checks? By all means, warn users that you couldn't be arsed to test things on more than one browser, but why go that extra mile to brick your site when other browsers probably support it quite well?
Every time I turn on ua switcher I wind up in an infinite loop with cloudflare captchas. I literally cannot turn it on because of the aggressive practice of this one company. I am going to try the chrome mask extension the other user just posted, since it deals with some js shenanigans as well.
I prefer poisoning my ad profile instead of passively blocking with Ad Nauseum https://adnauseam.io/ . It uses Ublock origin under the hood. I've got my click rate set to high but not 100%.
I just created separate profiles for different stuff. Work is all on chrome anyways due to google integration, so all thats left in my random browsing.
Ordered in what I use the most -
Fanfics, novels - profile 1.
Netflix, others - profile 2.
General browsing - profile 3.
This seems like a lot of work. I just point my router at AdGuard DNS and that takes care of all ads on every device on my network. No filter lists, nothing to host, completely free.
Only caveat is it doesn’t block ads served by the content provider itself e.g. some streaming services, but from what I hear those are difficult to block with any approach.
I have an Apple TV and I’ve been running iSponsorBlockTV [1] on my Synology box for a while. It auto-skips the sponsored segments and with Youtube premium, it gives me a clean, ad-free setup.
I can’t stand those in-video intros or sponsored promos, where I’m suddenly pitched a random VPN or productivity app.
I use uBlock on desktop and laptop with Dan host files. AdGuard DNS on Android, or Firefox Mobile with uBlock extension. Even Edge on mobile has extension support now.
I am so reliant on YouTube Premium that I forget people even see ads on there. I watch an awful lot of long form interviews, lectures, podcasts -- most downloaded for offline. It's the easiest $8/month of all my subscriptions.
I used to be have a premium family suscription, canceled it the moment google increased the price by 30%, I considered such a jump unfair compared to the rest of the economy where salaries are hardly getting adjusted to the inflation.
Mass surveillance is one of the biggest threat to society that has come out of our industry, and is the biggest objection that many people have against modern adtech.
So how does YouTube Premium address this? Well, first you login to Google and let them associate your real name to everything you do online, not just what you do on YouTube. Then, you give them your credit card info, home address, and phone number because why not? On top of that, you get to foot the bill for all of this.
I have used them both paid and free and they are not good. I will pick just one point - support. It's pathetic. Maybe because it's non existent. I stopped paying for it, started using free, then removed it altogether.
uBlock Origin really is that good as others are saying. I haven't really needed anything else. Ads in other apps? Well, that's a hit or miss but then a lot of my finance/investment related apps anyway don't work if I use any ad blocking on local network or device label, sadly. Tweaking around it is how I needed support with NextDNS and then realised I've been paying for something with essentially no support.
I actually wonder if the whole anti-ad movement is moving in the wrong direction. And I’m right there with the author running a pi-hole, but I wonder if it would be better to have an extension that will click all of the ads in a way that is invisible to the user. Make all those companies burn thru their budgets for no gain.
Brave + NextDNS/ControlD is what I've found the be the ultimate ad blocking combo for the entire household(TVs, phones, computers), when balancing cost/effort.
PiHole is popular but IMO not worth the effort when the above are so cheap. There are free ad blocking DNS servers, but they aren't customizable.
It is bad enough and distracting that ads show up on the site (thankfully Firefox and ublock origin does the job already) but on RSS blocking ads is impossible.
90 comments
[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 83.8 ms ] threadI would add one more useful tool though: A user-agent switcher[1]. There are still some websites that insist you must use Chrome (or sometimes Edge). They will block you if you try to use them with Firefox, even though they work perfectly well and sometimes even better on Firefox than they do on Chrome. A user-agent switcher gives you the option to simply uninstall Chrome for good.
e.g. My ISP provides a website for streaming live TV (e.g. sports) that claims to be incompatible with Firefox, but actually runs better (i.e. fewer glitches) on it than it does on Chrome. However, it refuses to load on Firefox unless you use a user-agent switcher.
Why do people write websites that refuse to run based on user-agent checks? By all means, warn users that you couldn't be arsed to test things on more than one browser, but why go that extra mile to brick your site when other browsers probably support it quite well?
[1]https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/user-agent-st...
Ordered in what I use the most - Fanfics, novels - profile 1. Netflix, others - profile 2. General browsing - profile 3.
For example IMDb. And proxying over mitmproxy actually breaks the whole app, because they do certificate pinning.
Only caveat is it doesn’t block ads served by the content provider itself e.g. some streaming services, but from what I hear those are difficult to block with any approach.
I can’t stand those in-video intros or sponsored promos, where I’m suddenly pitched a random VPN or productivity app.
[1]. https://github.com/dmunozv04/iSponsorBlockTV
Being able to remove Shorts from the app and to revert Alphabet's many incoherent design decisions makes the whole thing usable.
All I wanted years ago was an email address with my vanity domain. Had I only known I was shunting my whole family into a Bizarro Elgoog world...
Mass surveillance is one of the biggest threat to society that has come out of our industry, and is the biggest objection that many people have against modern adtech.
So how does YouTube Premium address this? Well, first you login to Google and let them associate your real name to everything you do online, not just what you do on YouTube. Then, you give them your credit card info, home address, and phone number because why not? On top of that, you get to foot the bill for all of this.
Uh, I'll continue to stay out of this.
I have used them both paid and free and they are not good. I will pick just one point - support. It's pathetic. Maybe because it's non existent. I stopped paying for it, started using free, then removed it altogether.
uBlock Origin really is that good as others are saying. I haven't really needed anything else. Ads in other apps? Well, that's a hit or miss but then a lot of my finance/investment related apps anyway don't work if I use any ad blocking on local network or device label, sadly. Tweaking around it is how I needed support with NextDNS and then realised I've been paying for something with essentially no support.
PiHole is popular but IMO not worth the effort when the above are so cheap. There are free ad blocking DNS servers, but they aren't customizable.
I regularly read https://daringfireball.com and sick of their ads showing up in my RSS feed.
It is bad enough and distracting that ads show up on the site (thankfully Firefox and ublock origin does the job already) but on RSS blocking ads is impossible.