Here are 3 benefits of using Adblock Plus for Firefox to surf the web:
Pop-ups are one of the internet’s oldest forms of advertising, and one of the most annoying. Even the man who invented pop-ups has apologized for doing so. They can be aggressive and disruptive, breaking your focus from the content you actually want to look at on the web.
With Adblock Plus for Firefox, you can say goodbye to pop-ups and other intrusive ads. The moment you install our extension, you’ll be blocking these ads right away. All you have to do is visit adblockplus.org from your Firefox browser to get started.
Malicious ads are ads that are infected with malware — software that sneaks its way onto your device. This software can include viruses, ransomware, and other malicious programs that collect your personal information and send it back to hackers.
While Adblock Plus doesn’t specifically block malware, it does reduce the amount of ads that load in your browser. And that means there are fewer chances you’ll click on an infected ad. It can also act as an alarm if you notice you’re inundated with pop-ups even though Adblock Plus is turned on. Usually this is a sign that you have adware on your computer (a type of malware that involves showing ads).
Advertisers track internet users as they browse the web. They use different methods designed to gather personal information and browsing behavior from you so that they can use that information to target you with ads for products you’re most likely to buy. This data includes things like your age, location, interests, hobbies, job, previous browsing history, search history, and online purchase history (like what’s been in your online shopping cart).
While some ad tracking can be useful, like seeing the exact product you didn’t even know you needed, it can also feel invasive to have your data handled by third parties. If that’s the case for you, you can limit this ad tracking by enabling Adblock Plus to block additional tracking and block social media icons tracking.
With these options, you can block most trackers on the web. (Please note that using these filter lists may cause issues on sites that rely on third-party trackers, like many banking sites do. You can typically work around that by adding sites to your allowlist, though this will unblock ads on those sites, too.)
To block trackers:
a. Open the Adblock Plus menu by clicking on the ABP icon in the top right of your browser’s toolbar. (If you don’t see the ABP icon, you can learn about how to pin it to your toolbar here.)
b. Click on the gear icon in the upper right of the Adblock Plus menu.
c. Under Free Features, click Block additional tracking and Block social media icons tracking.
If you’re serious about browsing the web with fewer distractions, you may want to give Adblock Plus Premium a try.
With a Premium subscription, you can:The benefits of using an ad blocker for Firefox are clear — you can block pop-ups and other annoying ads, reduce your chances of seeing malicious ads, and block trackers from advertisers. All with Adblock Plus for Firefox! And if you decide to upgrade to Adblock Plus Premium, you can have an even better web experience by blocking more distractions. To give us a try, head to adblockplus.org from your Firefox browser. And if you have any questions along the way, check out our Help Center or send us an email to support@adblockplus.org.
]]>This release includes various bug fixes ahead of the upcoming transition to Manifest v3, as well as additional functionality for existing snippets. It also resumes support for Firefox, bringing the changes from Adblock Plus 3.24 to Firefox users.
Upgraded @eyeo/webext-ad-filtering-solution to 1.2.4 (release notes), which includes the following changes:
Upgraded to @eyeo/snippets 1.2.1 (release notes: 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 1.2.1), which includes the following changes:
^^sh^^
and ^^svg^^
CSS selectors to various snippets.This release includes various bug fixes ahead of the upcoming transition to Manifest v3, as well as additional functionality for existing snippets. It also resumes support for Firefox, bringing the changes from Adblock Plus 3.24 to Firefox users.
Upgraded @eyeo/webext-ad-filtering-solution to 1.2.4 (release notes), which includes the following changes:
Upgraded to @eyeo/snippets 1.2.1 (release notes: 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 1.2.1), which includes the following changes:
^^sh^^
and ^^svg^^
CSS selectors to various snippets.This release removes an experimental snippet.
Upgraded @eyeo/snippets to 1.0.0 (release notes), which includes the following changes:
simulate-event-poc
snippet in favor of simulate-mouse-event
.This release removes an experimental snippet.
Upgraded @eyeo/snippets to 1.0.0 (release notes), which includes the following changes:
simulate-event-poc
snippet in favor of simulate-mouse-event
.The Manifest V3 version of Adblock Plus will be available this Spring (before June 2024, as that is the time Google advises extension developers to complete the migration by). The below post has been updated to reflect the most recent information about the migration. Read on for more information about what this change means for you!
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Our mission is to block all ads, pop-ups, and distractions so you can focus on a stress-free internet experience. We spend thousands of hours each year ensuring that Adblock Plus works in the web browsers our users rely on: specifically Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari browser, Microsoft’s Edge browser, and Mozilla’s Firefox browser.
Usually this work happens behind the scenes, with little fanfare. Occasionally, however, we need to make substantial changes to ensure Adblock Plus keeps up with the browser ecosystem. We’re on the cusp of one such change, which is the result of changes Google is making to how browser extensions work in Chrome. Called Manifest V3, the name refers to a new version of Google’s browser extension platform. This evolution of the browser ecosystem will change how all browser extensions work, and bring some challenges along with it.
According to Google, Manifest V3 will introduce stricter permissions and restrictions meant to keep users safe from past security vulnerabilities and invasive data collection. The intention is to make it harder for malicious browser extensions to hurt internet users since malicious activity will be easier to detect. To accomplish this, Google is changing the way communication is managed between extensions and web pages. This has the potential to impact users of any type of extension as it places more limitations on the extensions themselves. That’s why we’ve been working diligently to adapt to these changes.
Our goal is to navigate all of these changes so that you never notice a difference in the high-quality ad blocking you’ve come to expect from us. Some eagle-eyed users may notice a few changes, and we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a bit of the unglamorous—but vitally important—work our team is doing behind the scenes to ensure Adblock Plus works seamlessly for you now and in the future.
While the specific rollout plan for Manifest V3 is still being finalized, we know that starting in 2024 all browser extensions will need to be updated to meet new browser requirements. Our goal is to make this process completely seamless for you, you may notice some changes going forward. We’ve highlighted these changes below:
Filter List Availability
Adblock Plus, like all ad blockers, relies on predefined rules to know what to block and hide on the web pages you visit. These rules are collected into lists, also called, “filter lists.”
When you think of filter lists, it helps to think of a coffee filter. Coffee filters trap coffee grounds while letting the liquid coffee flow through. Ad blocking filter lists do the same thing, only they let the content you want to see flow through to your browser while keeping annoying ads away.
With Manifest V3, Adblock Plus is required to limit how many filter lists we have available to users. We’ll have the ability to offer up to 100 pre-installed filter lists that you can turn on and off depending on your preferences. From these available filter lists, users will be able to choose 50 that they can keep turned on at any given time.
We’re working to ensure that popular filter lists our users love are supported by us, and that any updates to these lists are brought to you by frequent new releases of the extension. This does mean that initially, our users will no longer be able to subscribe to any filter lists outside of what is provided in the extension. We will work to preserve the custom filter list data of those who are currently using third-party filter lists and reinstate their settings once support for these lists is available again.
A Change to How We Address Ad Circumvention
Currently, our filter lists are updated automatically—often multiple times a day. So if you see an ad that has managed to get around the ad blocking filter, it’s typically taken care of right away because of these updates. Manifest V3 has made it so that we’ll no longer be able to do these types of updates in the same way.
Thankfully, our developers created a solution called “differential filter list updates.” This feature allows them to ensure that filter lists are still kept up-to-date in between official releases. Users likely won’t notice a difference in ad blocking quality.
Keep an eye out for news from us, as we’ll let you know when the official release for the Manifest V3 version of the Adblock Plus extension happens. We’ll make sure to announce it on this blog and our social media channels.
Of course, we’ll always be working to iterate and improve Adblock Plus, and we remain dedicated to providing everyone with a distraction-free and worry-free internet experience. We plan on bringing even more value to our products this year!
We’ll also continue to advocate for improvement to the Manifest V3 platform for our users and the extension community as a whole. In the meantime, if you have any questions for our team, feel free to reach out to us at support@adblockplus.org.
]]>Thankfully, cookie banners aren’t inescapable. With our newest Adblock Plus Premium feature, you can now block annoying cookie banners across the web. All you have to do is head to our Premium enrollment page to block cookies today.
Other cookies are used by advertisers to develop profiles of their users. Most often this information includes a user’s age, location, shopping habits, and other online behavior. These are often third-party cookies that belong to one of the website’s monetization partners. Third party cookies can be used across multiple websites and track your behavior almost anywhere you go.
Unfortunately, cookie banners have become so prolific that many users find them annoying enough to simply close them as quickly as possible, often accepting the very tracking the GDPR hoped users would have more autonomy over. Cookie banners themselves have also evolved over the last few years. They can now be optimized in a way that makes it more likely that users accept all the cookies on a site, therefore ensuring that users can be tracked.
You’re now blocking cookie banners as you browse! When you turn on this feature, you acknowledge that it hides tracking consent requests. By default, we block third-party trackers, though not first party trackers, which are exclusive to the website you may visit and important for your user experience.
You can now enjoy a seamless browsing experience with fewer interruptions and less tracking from advertisers when you block cookie banners with Adblock Plus Premium. Get started today by heading to accounts.adblockplus.org/block-cookie-banners from the browser of your choice. And of course, we’re here to assist you with any questions at support@adblockplus.org.
]]>Note: This release was initially also intended for Firefox but was rejected by Mozilla’s extension review. Therefore we’re unable to bring this version to Firefox users yet, but we are working on addressing their concerns to bring future updates to Firefox users again soon.
This release includes various improvements to the out-of-the-box ad-filtering experience and it enhances the Premium cookie wall blocking feature.
Upgraded EWE to 1.2.3 (release notes), which includes the following changes:
$document
filter option was ineffective for frames (ui#1586).Note: This release was initially also intended for Firefox but was rejected by Mozilla’s extension review. Therefore we’re unable to bring this version to Firefox users yet, but we are working on addressing their concerns to bring future updates to Firefox users again soon.
This release includes various improvements to the out-of-the-box ad-filtering experience and it enhances the Premium cookie wall blocking feature.
Upgraded EWE to 1.2.3 (release notes), which includes the following changes:
$document
filter option was ineffective for frames (ui#1586).When you use an ad blocker for Firefox like Adblock Plus, you’re able to block pop-ups and other intrusive ads when you browse the web. The best part is that once you install our extension, this ad blocking begins immediately! You can simply set up the extension and forget about it.
To block ads, all you have to do is head to adblockplus.org from your Firefox browser and get started with the extension.
You can also block invasive ad trackers when you use Adblock Plus. Ad trackers are used by advertisers to collect your personal information as you browse the web. That includes information like your age, location, career, browsing history, search history, and more. Adblock Plus can block most of these third-party trackers as you browse.
To prevent unwanted tracking:Many intrusive ads can be vehicles for malware. Malware is malicious software designed to sneak onto your computer to steal data and/or damage your device. When you use Adblock Plus, you reduce the chances that you encounter these malicious ads across the web. And who doesn’t love a safer internet experience?
We believe that the internet is an ecosystem made healthy by balance. And that balance means a way for users, advertisers, and publishers to coexist in harmony. That’s why we offer our users the ability to support the content creators that they love. After all, many content creators depend on ad revenue to survive. When you use Adblock Plus, you can add your favorite sites to your allowlist. This makes it so that you will see ads on the sites you choose while blocking them everywhere else you browse.
To add a site to your allowlist:Going forward, any time you visit a site on your allowlist, Adblock Plus will allow ads on that site specifically. If you change your mind, remove the site from the list and you’ll be blocking ads again.
We all know that there are more than just pop-ups and intrusive ads across the web. There are plenty of other distractions, too! That’s why we’ve created Adblock Plus Premium — a way to enjoy enhanced pop-up blocking. With Adblock Plus Premium, our ultimate goal is to bring you features that will allow you to further take control of your internet experience and browse the web the way you want to.
When you upgrade to Adblock Plus Premium, you’ll be able to:An ad blocker for Firefox puts more control in the hands of users when it comes to browsing the web. With Adblock Plus for Firefox, you can block ads, block trackers, reduce malicious ads, and support the content creators you love. And if you choose to upgrade to Adblock Plus Premium, you can block even more distractions for a better web experience. Interested in trying us out? Simply go to adblockplus.org to get started. If you have any questions, feel welcome to shoot our support team a message at support@adblockplus.org.
]]>This release contains new filtering capabilities and it fixes various problems for users across some languages and websites.
Upgraded EWE to 1.2.2 (release notes: 1.2.0, 1.2.1, 1.2.2), which includes the following changes:
This release contains new filtering capabilities and it fixes various problems for users across some languages and websites.
Upgraded EWE to 1.2.2 (release notes: 1.2.0, 1.2.1, 1.2.2), which includes the following changes:
We released a fix to the newest version of the Adblock Plus extension yesterday. The updated version of Adblock Plus is available in all extension stores. As soon as users update Adblock Plus, any slowdown caused by this bug will be resolved.
For users that have automatic updates turned on (which is the default setting), your extension will automatically update as soon as it can. For those who intentionally have this setting turned off, you can manually update Adblock Plus by visiting the appropriate web store and reinstalling the extension.
We are always on the lookout for bugs and other ways we can improve the ad blocking functionality of our extension. And in this instance, we’re proud of our team coming together and quickly resolving this bug. We appreciate your support as we moved rapidly to fix this issue. Thank you for your understanding!
If you have any questions or need assistance with anything, our support team is always happy to help. Check out our Help Desk or feel welcome to shoot us an email at support@adblockplus.org.
]]>This release fixes a major performance problem that was introduced in Adblock Plus 3.22 (ui#1576).
]]>This release fixes a major performance problem that was introduced in Adblock Plus 3.22 (ui#1576).
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