Best ad blocker

[Raven]

I’m tired of more facebook ads than posts from friends that I want to see. There are many AdBlockers in the App Store. Do they work? Which is the best? Is there a cost where you enter your credit card and then can’t stop auto renewals? I’d appreciate good advice! Thanks.

[jchuzi]

I have Ad Block, AdBlock Engine, Ghostery Lite, and Disconnect. I have not paid for any of them and they seem to work well. Once in awhile, a site refuses to load so I have unchecked Ghostery Lite Content Blocker - Cosmetic Filters. Other than that, all seems to be OK.

[Raven]

Thanks jchuzi.
Do you need that many?

[jchuzi]

I probably don't need that many but (mostly) everything works well and the price is right!

[Bruce_F]

For Facebook, I use the Arc browser. No ads and the pages look the best of any browser I've used.

[Raven]

I downloaded an Ad Blocker app from the App store. Now what? How do I make it work for my facebook account?

[sluggo]

Of course I've only used this on my Mac desktop. Not sure if there are versions for other devices. But the best I've found for Facebook is FB Purity. It's a free browser extension. I no longer see ads. And you can set it up to filter all kinds of stuff out.

[kimmer]

For Facebook, I use the Arc browser. No ads and the pages look the best of any browser I've used.

Same here. I like the Arc browser.

[Bruce_F]

It's interesting that Arc is getting so little recognition. I still use Safari most of the time but Arc has some very promising features that could make it more popular if only it got more exposure.

[Xairbusdriver]

Just took a look at ARC. Might be fine for Desktop. Will not install on mobile devices however as the only search engine currently is Google. I've only used DuckDuckGo on all my devise for the last few years.

So far, I'm finding Apple is pretty fast with security updates for Safari. How does Arc match with Apple in that area? Apparently Arc is at version 1.28.x.

Well, that didn't get very far. First it wanted to import my passwords from Safari (or any other browser that might store them(!). I don't store any passwords in any browser, but I clicked the "Safari" button, anyway.

Second, it wants "Full Disk Access". That's pretty normal for any kind of utility. Apparently, one of the changes in Ventura is that "Files and Folders" is no longer a choice in Security & Privacy. In Ventura, it's 'all-or-nothing'. Without any experience with the Browser Company, I'll forego further access to their app(s). Thus I selected "Do this later".

Now I get to select my favorite apps. I assume a multi-colored, dot-matrix "F" is Faceslap? Obviously "X" is the app formerly known a Twot! I think there is an icon for MS Outlook. Why would I be using a MS app?! I doubt the little box with an "N" inside it is for Netscape! I have no idea what the other four icons are. By now I think the center icon is Arc's indicator for choosing some other "favorite" app. Possibly, but I may not have even got 2.5 out of 9! The red outlined box with the right-pointing arrow only turns on/off the red outline for the bod. Rhat icon does look like a YouTube icon. Guess I'll try the "Skip for now" link. I already keep all my favorite apps running pretty much any time the Mac is on, no need for another side-bar taking up screen real estate.

Fourth, it wants to import my bookmarks. This will be fast because I don't keep any bookmarks in any browser. That's what URLM Pro is for; all my 1.5MBs of bookmarks (plus the last 1,000 visited sites) always available in all my browsers. I will only switch to Arc (or any other browser) if it or URLM Pro is supported.

I don't think I'm in the targeted users. Oh well... Of course, part of my problems may be related to my skipping many of the settings.

[Raven]

For Facebook, I use the Arc browser. No ads and the pages look the best of any browser I've used.

Once I download the Ad blocker app, now how to make it work on my iMac or iPhone?

[Bruce_F]

If you're talking about Ad Blocker for Arc, it doesn't require any, as far as I can tell.

I put a half dozen bookmarks in Arc to see how it works. Other than that, I've done nothing, not even lifted the hood, so to speak. I just like the way I can visit Facebook or Reddit and it's so clean, without ads.