Ad-blockers are the closest thing to a necessary browser extension these days. Some may even argue that they’re essential to enjoy surfing the web without distractions, to which I concur. There’s a reason they’re among the most downloaded extensions, after all.
Adblock Plus for Chrome is a simple ad-blocker that will take care of advertisements of various types for you, helping to ensure a distraction-free web surfing experience, while also granting you some extra performance and smoothness, as your system won’t have to load those ads anymore.
A simple, clear-cut solution
The add-on does well to make the setup as straightforward as possible. You essentially don’t have to do anything other than install it, as it will start blocking ads the very next moment. Visiting ad-heavy domains, as well as blocking select elements on a page, made for a smooth experience throughout.
It also successfully passed the YouTube ads litmus test, even if they showed for a split second before quickly getting dismissed.
Configure for your needs
You can turn off ad-blocking for select websites, as well as dive into more particular modifications via the Advanced settings menu. Filter lists are the bedrock of ad-blockers, so it was nice to see the add-on ship with a variety of them.
Adding custom filter lists via URL is not currently possible due to the transition to Manifest V3. We’ve yet to see how Chromium ad-blocking utilities will fare when that gets introduced.
Acceptable ads
This is a point of contention for many, as the extension will allow certain ads to go through, classifying them as acceptable ads. It claims they’re non-intrusive and follow strict guidelines, but the problem is that the option is opt-out rather than opt-in, so it feels a bit disingenuous, all things considered.
Despite all of that, Adblock Plus for Chrome should serve most users well, providing a reliable solution that requires minimal effort to get started with.