New Ways To Block Irritating Ads

Although ads help to keep the web free, some obstruct your view and invade your privacy. Here we reveal how to stop them.

Skip video adverts on YouTube
Lots of YouTube videos now make you sit through adverts before they start playing. Some of these are TrueView Video Ads. which you can skip after five seconds (the advertiser only pays YouTube if you watch the whole thing), but others run for a full 30 seconds. If you don't want to waste valuable time on car commercials, you can install the delightfully named Chrome add-on ScrewAds, which automatically skips both short and long YouTube adverts. There's also a version for Firefox, called ScrewAds Plus for YouTube.
If you have the latest version of Adblock Plus installed, you should find that it blocks most video adverts on YouTube. If some are still appearing, go into the add-on's Options and, on the 'Filter lists' tab, deselect 'Allow some non-intrusive advertising'.

Prevent pop-unders from opening
All the main browsers now have built-in pop-up blockers, which generally do a good job of keeping irritating adverts at bay. However, one type of ad that often sneaks through is the pop-under. which - as its name suggests - opens behind your main browser window. Because pop-urders don't obstruct your screen. you may not even notice them until you minimise or close your browser, and find the ad waiting there for your attention.
To prevent pop-under ads from opening, install the Chrome add-on Poper Blocker. This automatically detects and blocks pop-unders. although you can see the blocked content by clicking a link in the notification that appears. If you use Firefox, the excellent add-on NoScript will stop pop-under ads, many of which use JavaScript to create and conceal their windows.

Filter ads on your tablet and phone
Because of the smaller screen size. adverts that appear when you're browsing the web on your mobile device are even more annoying than on your PC, and can often completely obstruct your view. Fortunately, the ever-reliable Adblock Plus launched a free Android app at the end of last year (http://bit.ly/135XVGo) to combat the problem. This works almost as well as the browser add-on, filtering all ads from web pages and from within most apps.
However, because of recent changes made by Google, you may need to configure the Adblock Plus app manually before it will work on your device. On Android 4.1+ tablets and phones. running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, go to Settings. choose Wi-Fi and connect to your desired wireless network (if you're not already). Long press the name of the network. choose 'Modify network' and select the 'Show advanced options' box. Now press 'Proxy settings'. choose Manual and type localhost in the 'Proxy hostname' line and 26571 in the 'Proxy port' line. Save your settings and Adblock Plus will now filter all ads automatically over your Wi-Fi connection. Read the article 'Configuring Adblock Plus for Android' for more information, including instructions for older Android devices.
Sadly, there isn't a version of Adblock Plus for i0S. but you can reduce the number of ads you see on your iPhone or iPad by going to Settings. Safari and ensuring Block Pop-ups is set to On. As a quick fix, if intrusive adverts are spoiling your enjoyment of games such as Angry Birds, you can usually make them disappear simply by disconnecting from Wi-Fi.

Block ads in the Android notification area 

If you download a lot of free apps from Google Play, you may have noticed that ads sometimes appear in the notification area at the top of your phone or tablet's screen (where updates are shown). This is because some apps abuse their notification permissions to download these adverts - known as 'push-notification ads' - to your device. Not only are they annoying, especially if you open them by mistake, but they can compromise your privacy. 

To identify which apps are responsible for these ads, install Lookout Ad Network Detector or TrustGo Ad Detector. Both these free tools scan your phone for apps that connect to advertising networks and tell you which ones show ads in the Android notification area. Once identified, you can either uninstall the offending apps, or just prevent them from displaying notifications. On Jelly Bean devices, you can do this by going to Settings. Apps, tapping the name of the app and deselecting 'Show notifications'.

Stop ads expanding across your screen 

Among the most annoying new types of ad are those that expand to fill your screen when you roll your mouse over them - even if you only do so for a split second. The resulting video or animation is often accompanied by a loud soundtrack and can be so large that it's hard to find the 'close' or 'mute' options. You can invariably find examples of these ads at Digital Spy. 

Because most expanding adverts use Flash, the easiest way to stop them is to install a Flash-blocking add-on such as Flashblock for Firefox and FlashBlock for Chrome. This is preferable to disabling Flash altogether, because you can click to play the Flash content you do want to see and set up "white lists" of sites for which Flash is allowed. 

Hide all adverts on Facebook 

Adverts on Facebook are unavoidable; after all, they're how the social network makes its money and the site's Help Centre clearly states that "It's not possible to block Facebook ads from showing on pages within your account". 

But if you're sick of seeing sponsored ads down the side of every page and in your News Feed, there is a way you can banish them forever. Install the Chrome add-on Facebook Ads Remover and all adverts will be hidden automatically, as if they were never there to begin with (see image above). The latest version of the add-on also blocks ads within Facebook apps. 

Alternatively, you can use Adblock Plus (again). which now filters Facebook ads by default. if you don't mind blocking adverts on all other sites. too!

Stop yourself appearing in Facebook adverts 

You've probably seen adverts for products and services on Facebook that include endorsements from your friends. for example "John Smith likes Amazon UK". This is usually because the friend in question has 'liked' the company's page, and means that if you've 'liked' pages yourself then your name (and even your profile photo) may appear in ads in your friends' News Feeds. 

If you'd prefer not to participate in Facebook's "social adverts", click the Settings (cog) icon in the top-right corner and choose Account Settings. Select Adverts in the left-hand column and then click the Edit link in the Ads & Friends section. Facebook will now show you an example of an advert with your name in it. To prevent this intrusion from happening, click the drop-down menu next to 'Pair my social actions with adverts for' and choose 'No one'. Click Save Changes to confirm.