Top 5 Reasons to Use a Reliable Ad Blocker
An ad blocker is an application that removes or changes advertisements when surfing the Internet. Therefore, we could say it is a number one program for anyone who hates seeing annoying banners, pop-ups, or other advertisements. Not to mention ad blockers can help avoid scams and they offer many more benefits that we will discuss further in this blog post. Under such circumstances, it is no wonder more than 40 percent of people in the United Kingdom that were asked if they use an ad blocker replied positively. However, same as always, when choosing a tool for your system, you should make sure the selected ad blocker is reliable. These applications might have disadvantages too, and if you want to learn about them, you should read our full article.
What are the benefits of using a reliable ad blocker?
No doubt you know at least one benefit of using an ad blocker, but in reality, it can provide more of them if you pick the right tool. Here are the most valuable benefits that we believe makes using an ad blocker a necessity.
1. Ad blockers can help avoid scams
Some of the annoying banners and pop-ups we encounter while surfing various web pages lead to scam web pages. A scam website could ask you to submit personal information for a chance to win a prize or get a freebie. Clearly, depending on the requested information, participating in such scams could endanger your privacy. Such sites may share or sell your information to different third parties, which means it is unknown where it could end up or for what purpose it might be used. Nonetheless, ad blockers remove such advertisements from websites you visit, and as long as you cannot see them, you should be safe.
2. They make your browsing experience better
Removing irritating advertisements may not only protect you from scams, but also make your browsing experience more pleasant. With the ad blocker stopping the ads you can surf the Internet without being interrupted by irritating pop-ups or flashing banners. As a result, you can avoid being distracted and concentrate on what you are doing or searching for. Instead of seeing advertisements you should see blank spaces or content the ads were supposed to be on top of.
3. Ad blockers allow loading websites faster
Displaying advertising content can use a lot of resources as the browser needs to load images, text, and the analytics code. Consequently, the browser may take longer to load the actual website's content which you came to see, for example, an article or a video. Therefore, by stopping the ads, the ad blocker should decrease the number of needed resources and as a result, help your browser load websites a bit faster.
4. They can help avoid being tracked
Pop-ups, banners, or other advertising material coming from adware servers could place tracking cookies on the browser to follow the user and gather information about him while he surfs the Internet. For instance, they could collect various anonymous data like viewed pages, clicked ads, and so on. Later on, all of this collected information can be used to serve more relevant content or, in other words, targeted ads. Naturally, by removing such advertisements, the ad blocker could help you avoid being tracked.
5. Ad blockers can save mobile data
As we said earlier, advertisements consist of images, text, and other components that may use a considerable amount of your mobile data if they are loaded. On the other hand, with the help of a reliable ad blocker, you can get rid of unwanted ads and, as a result, save some mobile data by making the browser load the website's content without any advertisements.
Are there any disadvantages of using an ad blocker?
Probably, the biggest disadvantage of having an ad blocker is that some websites will not allow you to access content on them while the application is activated. Obviously, it all started with the appearance of ad blockers. Such applications can block all advertising content, including legitimate ads some web pages need to show in order to survive and be able to offer content free of charge. Accordingly, such sites decided to show messages asking to whitelist the website or turn the ad blocker off if the user wants to view content on them. Naturally, if you like the site and want to support it, we highly recommend whitelisting it. You do not have to click any ads as just allowing the web page to show you advertising content will help it generate the money it needs to survive.
What's more, by removing all advertisements, your ad blocker could prevent you from seeing offers you might be interested in while visiting reputable websites. Thus, in some cases, you may want to pick a tool that would let you set custom filters for your favorite sites to filter most annoying content and leave the ads you may find useful. Users should also be aware that some ad blockers can stop adware servers from tracking them but might track users themselves. Clearly, if you do not want such behavior from your ad blocker, we would recommend choosing it carefully.
All things considered, an ad blocker can be a great addition to your browser's tools as it can help you surf the Internet faster, safer, and with fewer distractions. All you need to do is pick a reputable tool and take full advantage of its offered features.
