uBlock Origin

What is uBlock Origin?

Do you ever imagine what happens when you are online, surfing, going from website to website, watching videos, etc? Everything you do on the web is tracked by some software! These apps are gathering all info about you, your searches, what are you interested in, so they could give the best feedback through all kinds of ads which most of us don’t want, also you could pick up some malware which could give you a hell of a problem that could lead to installing a new windows system and lose some of important data on your PC.

In some way, we all depend on the web these days and unwanted content becomes normal when you use any browser. Only a few clicks are needed to get this simple browser extension which will make your life easier! You won’t get some adult notifications, unwanted pop-up websites with garbage content, and an infinite number of advertisements of your previous searches.

The most important thing is that you won’t share your data and some personal information on the whole web! Many of this stuff isn’t purposely made by website owners but if they want to make some money, they must have some ads and social links. On any of these websites, your data is collected and shared on many other platforms. Maybe you watched some documentaries about this and you know what we speak of!

The uBlock Origin was founded in 2014 and since then, they have made many useful upgrades and features to protect your PC and other devices. On the other hand, if you want to use the web and filter all unwanted ads, pop-ups, and malware sources, you will want this add-on on your browser!

What browsers does uBlock Origin support and how to install it?

You can add this extension to every popular browser, and from many users’ reviews, every browser should be supported by this really useful app. Through the years, uBlock Origins was most popular for Mozilla users and several years ago, they had over 5 million users only on this browser, which is pretty amazing, and they got some awards from Mozilla!

You can add this extension to your browser if you are using Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Opera, Firefox, and Safari browsers. If you are not sure if this is the best ad-blocker for you, just type “best ad blockers” on google, and uBlock Origin will be recommended as the first one!

If this is your first time adding an extension to your browsers, you will find out how easy it is. You only need to type “uBlock Origin” on google search and the first link you can find will probably be a link from your browser’s official site (it depends on which one you are using). When you click there, it will redirect you to the page where you only need to click, for example on Chrome, “Add to Chrome” and that would be it!

So basically, you need only a few clicks to install it on your browser. Go find it in the google search, probably click on the first link you get (which is not a paid ad), and the final click is to add the extension to your browser.

How to use uBlock Origin and its features?                     

The uBlock Origin is a free browser extension and its purpose is to block unwanted ads and content. As a regular user, you will probably need to add this app and that’s all, it will do all the work for you!

Your privacy on the web is really in danger these days if you don’t have some software for protection. Most of the websites are having some 3rd party scripts and you can easily block them with this simple app!

Since this is free and open-source software, you can find already made blocklists by some developers and advanced users or you can make your blocklists of websites but also, you can make your list of trusted sites or some pages of websites you can make your whitelist!

When you go to a website and there is a boring or unwanted element, the uBlock Origin gives you an option to block it and keep using that website! It’s really simple, you just need to right-click on that element, you will notice the uBO icon, where it says “Block element”.

It is really important to mention that uBlock Origin is a “lightweight” software for your PC or android devices. Its impact on CPU or memory is insignificant, your device won’t get any difficulties running it in the back while you are using other apps or software. Of course, the more you surf and go from website to website, the memory

consumption will increase but that is unnoticeable from the user’s side even if you have some pretty old machine!

They made a cool feature to block WebRTC and this will be pretty interesting for VPN users! We are not sure how many of you know that even if you are using VPN, WebRTC can expose your real IP address!

All options you need are in the dashboard but there are some simple shortcuts for the current website/page you visit. When you click on the extension on your browser, the first thing you will see is a huge on/off button, below that there are options to block all popups, large media elements, cosmetic filtering, remote fonts or to remove JavaScript from the current website you are visiting.

Below that you will find some info on how many ads are blocked on the current page, how many domains are connected, and the summary of everything done since the installation.

How to hide elements on the website with the uBO?

You probably visited some websites and wished that some elements of the website didn't exist, like an inappropriate picture or some other weird stuff but there’s a thing that you want to show to someone! Click on the extension and find the “lighting” icon, “element zapper mode”, click there and you choose what elements you want to remove from the website! You can remove anything from the page. If you want all removed content back, just clear the cache for that website/page.

There’s also a similar but a different option, the “element picker”. You can pick an element such as a picture or a thumbnail, and you will get an option to preview these elements or to remove them. Clicking on “preview” will remove/reverse that action, and all elements of that kind will not be visible on the website/page.

How to whitelist a website?

When you leave the default setting on the uBO, you won’t have boring ads on youtube before or during the video, you won’t get redirected to some awful pop-up ads when you click on some link, and most importantly, your browser won’t let malicious and suspicious scripts run in the back and make your PC vulnerable while you are surfing! On the uBO, there aren't any acceptable ads, so if you want to see some of them, you will need to whitelist them.

When you get to the dashboard, you will see basic settings and if you are a regular user, you will probably just leave them as they are. In the “Filter lists” tab you will find some very useful lists already made by the community or developers and you can choose if you want to use them or not. Of course, you can make your filters in the next tab!

Maybe the most important tab here is “Trusted site”! Since uBlock Origin doesn’t accept “acceptable“ ads, these ads are important for paying customers and some of them will probably be interesting for you. So if you like to see some ads like discounts on malls, some shopping centers, some promoting events, etc, you will need to white list the website and we will tell you how to do that!

Go to the website you want to whitelist, click on the extension, and then on the big button “on/off”. When you turn off the uBO for that website, it will remain off only for that website! You can check it on the “trusted site” tab!

The bottom line of uBlock Origin?

The uBlock Origin is probably the most popular content blocker. This isn’t only an ad-blocker, it’s a cross-platform browser extension for content filtering and safely browsing on the World Wide Web! It blocks all unwanted ads, 3rd-party scripts, and malware sources.

This is free open-source software that could help you a lot! It won’t slow your PC or device by running it instead, it will optimize your CPU and memory efficiency by blocking all unwanted and “unhealthy” stuff for your PC or device you are using!