How do you block ads in Safari

I am a Mac Mini user now, converted from Windows.

I still use Chrome for many reasons, one being the Web Developer too, the other being blocking ads.


I keep reading that Safari is better, faster etc, and just had an update for ABP on Safari. So I ran this test.


Both with all the blockers on to the 'mirror' website in the UK.


This is with Safari with all the blockers on.



This is in Chrome, with all the blockers on.

Why is Safari so bad at this?


Simon

Mac mini (2023 with M2)

Posted on Feb 28, 2023 05:48 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 28, 2023 02:28 PM

Nothing to worry about. Ka-Block! is small and it's free. I have never seen any user complaints about its operation.


AD Block is just another in a fair number of available ad blockers. I've tried Ad Block, AdGuard, 1Blocker and some others, I didn't see where the paid or freemium blockers did any better than K-Block!.


Without a doubt, Safari is better than Chrome. But then, anything is better than Chrome.


Chrome is a known, massive resource hog. On top of that, from the moment you turn your Mac on to the time you turn it off, it is constantly sending anonymized data of your computer and web usage to Google's servers. Chrome doesn't even have to be running. The keystone agents,


/Library/LaunchDaemons/google.keystone.agent.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/google.keystone.xpcservice.plist


do that by launching apps buried within the Chrome app, which load at startup. And then there's this.


We don't allow any software written by Google on our Macs. Not Chrome, Google Earth, or anything else. Google's real business is collecting marketing data. You are their unwilling and unpaid source for it when you use any of their junk. If Safari isn't a browser you care much for, try Firefox. If you have one, you do not need Chrome to access your Google account. You can do that from any browser.


Remove Chrome and its daemons. Never install it again.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 28, 2023 02:28 PM in response to simon_a6

Nothing to worry about. Ka-Block! is small and it's free. I have never seen any user complaints about its operation.


AD Block is just another in a fair number of available ad blockers. I've tried Ad Block, AdGuard, 1Blocker and some others, I didn't see where the paid or freemium blockers did any better than K-Block!.


Without a doubt, Safari is better than Chrome. But then, anything is better than Chrome.


Chrome is a known, massive resource hog. On top of that, from the moment you turn your Mac on to the time you turn it off, it is constantly sending anonymized data of your computer and web usage to Google's servers. Chrome doesn't even have to be running. The keystone agents,


/Library/LaunchDaemons/google.keystone.agent.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/google.keystone.xpcservice.plist


do that by launching apps buried within the Chrome app, which load at startup. And then there's this.


We don't allow any software written by Google on our Macs. Not Chrome, Google Earth, or anything else. Google's real business is collecting marketing data. You are their unwilling and unpaid source for it when you use any of their junk. If Safari isn't a browser you care much for, try Firefox. If you have one, you do not need Chrome to access your Google account. You can do that from any browser.


Remove Chrome and its daemons. Never install it again.

Mar 6, 2023 02:21 PM in response to simon_a6

Almost sounds like the ads you're not seeing on the page in Chrome are instead being pushed on to a new tab.


Basically, there's no perfect ad blocker. Any is better than none, though. I did try Bear Block once because people were raving about the new great blocker. Yeah, it worked a little too well. It entirely blocked a fourth of the sites I normally go to daily. No page content at all. Dumped the Bear.

Mar 6, 2023 01:41 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Running certain sites on Safari still shows a load of ads, and there are certain things about Safari.

YouTube for some reason keeps on showing a blasted "Mac cleanup" video before every video. I tried the same on Chrome, and no such video. So decided to move that back to Chrome.


However, on Chrome, Google seems to randomly have the top 2-3 links going to a 'bink' alkc type link. You click any part of the page and it goes to a website. No idea why. Or you get a URL that you can see in the status bar, that is to a bing.com url. This is on a fresh Mac mini, so it is not a virus or anything like that.


Are such things part of a "Google login" or a Chrome known issue?!


Prob not something for this thread tho.

But it doesn't seem to happen on Safari.

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How do you block ads in Safari

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