6.8 KiB
µBlock
pronounce you-block as in "you decide what enters your browser" / see the "µ" as a stylish "u", to emphasize small resource footprint
sorry for the dubious name, we are coders, not marketers
An efficient blocker add-on for various browsers. Fast, potent, and lean.
Philosophy
µBlock is not an ad blocker; it's a general-purpose blocker. µBlock blocks ads through its support of the Adblock Plus filter syntax. µBlock extends the syntax and is designed to work with custom rules and filters.
That said, it's important to note that using a blocker is NOT theft. Don't fall for this creepy idea. The ultimate logical consequence of blocking = theft is the criminalisation of the inalienable right to privacy.
Ads, "unintrusive" or not, are just the visible portions of privacy-invading apparatus entering your browser when you visit most sites nowadays. µBlock's main goal is to help users neutralize such privacy-invading apparatus — in a way that welcomes those users who don't wish to use more technical, involved means (such as µMatrix).
EasyList, Peter Lowe's Adservers, EasyPrivacy are enabled by default when you install µBlock. Many more lists are readily available to block trackers, analytics, and more. Hosts files are also supported.
Performance
Memory
Chromium
Safari
Firefox
Details of the benchmark available at Firefox version: benchmarking memory footprint.
Important note regarding memory usage: There is currently a bug in Chromium 39+ which causes a new memory leak each time the popup UI of an extension is opened. This affects all extensions. Keep this in mind when measuring Chromium's memory usage. In the benchmarks, I avoided opening the popups completely.
CPU
µBlock is also easy on the CPU
Details of the benchmark available in this LibreOffice spreadsheet.
Blocking
Being lean and efficient doesn't mean blocking less
For details of benchmark, see
µBlock and others: Blocking ads, trackers, malwares.
Quick tests
Installation
Feel free to read about the extension's required permissions.
Chromium
You can install the latest version manually, from the Chrome Web Store, or from the Opera store.
Firefox
You can install by downloading the latest uBlock.firefox.xpi file, and by dragging the downloaded xpi file to your add-on page.
Safari
You can get µBlock for Safari (Yosemite's 8.0 or newer) from the Safari Extension Gallery.
There are currently no plans to support older Safari's. It's not recommended that you install µBlock on them (do it at your own risk).
Note for all browsers
To benefit from µBlock's higher efficiency, it's advised that you don't use other inefficient blockers at the same time (such as AdBlock or Adblock Plus). µBlock will do as well or better than most popular ad blockers.
Release History
See the releases pages for a history of releases and highlights for each release.
Documentation
µBlock's functionality is self-explanatory and intuitive for the most part. One thing to note after you get started is the big power button in µBlock's popup:
The big power button is to disable/enable µBlock for the specific current site/hostname (as extracted from the URL of the current page).
In other words, it applies to the current site only; it is not a global power button. The state of the power switch for a specific site will be remembered.
For advanced usage, read about dynamic filtering and more on µBlock's wiki.
About
Free. Open source. For users by users. No donations sought.
Without the preset lists of filters, this extension is nothing. So if ever you really do want to contribute something, think about the people working hard to maintain the filter lists you are using, which were made available to use by all for free.
You can contribute by helping to translate this project. There's an entry on Crowdin where you may contribute to µBlock's localization.