Google Chrome, by far, is the most used web browser currently, there’s no denying it. Advertisers are getting more and more aggressive, there’s no denying it either. So let’s discuss the options we have.

Video or text - we have both versions for you.

How to Block Ads on Chrome (and Keep your Privacy)

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Option #1. Chrome settings (web)

Chrome web browser has a few settings related to ads along with other user control options for things like cookies, images, notifications, etc. Some even call it Chrome ad blocker, but I wouldn’t go that far, and by the following guiding actions on how to use it I’ll demonstrate why I think so.

Launch the Google Chrome browser and go to Settings - you have to find that tiny three-dotted icon in the top right corner. Go to the Privacy & Security tab, and then to the Site settings section a bit below.

This is where you can control what information websites can use, which means you can decide whether sites can see your location, access your camera or microphone, send you notifications, collect cookies and so on. I bet to many of you what I said would be a revelation and quite surprising, and not in a good way.

View carefully and scroll down to find “Additional content settings” and there you’ll see Ads, so click it. Here we see a brief explanation: Some sites show ads to be able to provide content for free, but some sites show intrusive or misleading ads.

And we have a choice to set the default behavior for all websites globally: 1 - all sites can show ads, or 2 - block ads on sites with intrusive or misleading ads. So of course, if you want less ads, you select the latter. This also means, if you pay attention, that not only misleading ads will be blocked selectively, but all ads on certain websites that may have such ads. So you leave it to Google to take care of it.

But there’s also another way of doing it, in case you don’t want to set no-ads for all websites, and, let’s say, you want no ads on several specific sites only. Customization in other words, and it is possible. Let me go to the BBC website for example.

Now, in the address bar left to the URL click this little padlock sign. In the dropdown go to Site Settings. Here we have all the permissions for this specific website listed - and we have 2 basic options for each of those (allow or block). So find ads and set it to Blocked.

Option #2. Chrome settings (mobile)

Similarly, we can highlight the same procedure for Android smartphone, tablets and devices, since Android mobile operating system is also a Google product. Chrome on mobile phones will not block all 100% ads, it is mainly focused on pop-ups - and they call it Pop-ups in the settings instead of Ads.

On the support page for ads in Chrome, they state that by default Chrome blocks all pop-ups from websites. This is probably more related to the PC version, as on my mobile phone where Chrome is one of the built-in Google tools, this setting is disabled.

Anyway, you basically can do the same as we’ve talked about a moment ago: turn pop-ups on or off in Chrome browser mobile version. Open the Chrome app and tap that three-dotted icon on the right to bring out a drop-down menu. Select Settings and from there Site settings. Go to Pop-ups and Redirects, as we see it is set to “blocked”. Turn the toggle to the right to change it to “allowed”, and that’s it.

Option #3. Ad blocker extensions

The best and without a doubt the most efficient way is to install an ad blocker extension to Chrome. This is pretty simple and there’s plenty of choices. And what’s great is that most of them are free. You can get them from the Chrome Web Store or just google it, visit a website and download a plugin from there. Let me show you 5 fine ad blockers and how to use them.

  1. Adblock

This is the Chrome Web Store with hundreds of extensions for productivity, entertainment, news, shopping, social networking etc. This is most definitely the #1 ad blocker around the globe, which is confirmed by the number of installs here - more than 10 million.

And rightly so, since we can see its major features as listed: block pop ups, ads, and banners, on YouTube, Facebook, or any other website, block trackers, ads with malware, cryptomining; set up filters, whitelists, and other options. The latest update is September 7, 2022, which is very recent. Adblock is available in 32 languages.

There are more extra options for Premium users, including various themes, swapping ads with funny images, syncing across multiple devices, hiding floating videos, and more. Premium, by the way, costs $20 per year, and a bundle with VPN is $40 per year.

  1. uBlock Origin

Over 10 million users, same as Adblock. Free and done “for users by users”, meaning it is an open-source app. So it goes beyond free price, and users may access the source code and tweak it. I even saw the statement on their website that they do not accept donations to be fully unbiased. Such commitment ought to be respected for sure.

It has a minimalist window design: On/Off button, stats, features and settings. Let’s explore what tools it has. Zapper mode - point to any element on a web page and hide it. The next one is picker mode, which is similar, but more advanced - you select an element and uBlock can automatically create a filter for it, and thus it will be applied on all sites.

“Block all pop-ups on this site” - could be helpful too, and I haven’t seen that pop-up ad on CNN any more. “Block large media elements” - users may configure it by setting the size limit of media, starting from 50 Kb. We also have cosmetic filtering, remote fonts, and even the option of disabling JavaScript for the whole site.

Now, the options, and uBlock offers plenty. Privacy, appearance, default behavior… for instance, I’ve mentioned cosmetic filtering, we can view here what it is exactly - it is the basic feature of “element hiding”, in other words, ad blocking, and you can disable it so that some relevant ads will be seen, for example ads on Google search results page. There are also settings for technical users, with a warning that any changes will be irreversible.

  1. Adguard

The next fine ad blocker for Chrome I’d like to highlight is AdGuard, and by the way it supports other browsers too - Firefox, Edge, Safari, Opera. And besides blocking pop-ups and ads, it has tools to tackle spyware, malware and activity trackers. It has both free and premium versions. The publisher is registered in Cyprus, although if you take a look at company employee profiles at Linkedin, it is obvious they are Russian. Just F-Y-I.

Block trackers - check, block social widgets - check, block malicious websites - check, block search ads - check, send statistics - not yet. Some general settings, filters for things like ads, privacy, annoyances, security… allowlist, additional settings - all pretty standard. The interface is also typical - an optimized window with statistics and some options.

  1. Adblock Plus

It is not the same as Adblock, these are 2 different products, although the same owner. Let me explain. Adblock Plus (or ABP) was created earlier, even before the Chrome browser, and it was a Firefox add-on. Later the team had no choice but to make a Chrome version as well, and moreover the company behind ABP acquired AdBlock. Visually, it should not be a problem to differentiate between the two: Adblock with a hand, and ABP is just those three exact letters.

There’s a neat little option called “Report an issue”, where users can help improve ABP, for example, if a page displays incorrectly, or there are still ads, let the developer know. Let’s also view the settings. Nothing unusual as well. “Show acceptable ads” - is ON by default, proceed as you deem right. Additional filters, whitelist to support certain websites, several customization options. Users may also contribute to the product by sharing it on social networks, reporting bugs, providing more translations, donating, or helping evaluate acceptable ads.

  1. Total Adblock

Ok, the 5th and the last ad blocker, so I won’t bore you too much, is Total Adblock by the UK limited company established in 2016. Besides the extension for Chrome, it also has apps for Android and iOS devices, which is great. It is designed with the sole purpose of blocking unwanted ads and trackers. Also FYI, they collect user IP addresses upon installation.

A typical light interface, blank as of now. Settings - block ads on all websites (yes), block pop-ups (yes), acceptable ads (that is a whitelist of sites), interface language (English, and 10 more localizations), account details (containing tech support contact, and video tutorials - this is useful, and I haven’t seen it on other ad blocker vendors). Curiously enough, 8 trackers have been blocked here at the Total Adblock official website. Statistics also include the amount of data saved by blocking ads - that’s nice.

One thing I’ve noticed as well is slower page load speed with Total Adblock compared to other extensions. I have a suspicion that this is done intentionally since the vendor offers to get faster connection by purchasing the Unlimited plan. There’s also a “discount” today only, and we can get it for $29. Free ad blocker with slower speed or paid ad blocker but fast - it’s up to you.

Wrap up

Google Chrome browser has some options to minimize ads, pop-ups and notifications, but clearly ad blocker extensions do the job much much better. They are super easy to get and most of them are free. Also, one thing I probably forgot to mention is that all ad blocker extensions we’ve gone through hide ads on YouTube - that’s another upside.