Testing the uBlock Origin Ad Blocker

Status Symbol

Once you are done configuring, uBlock Origin can display statistical data about the blocked elements when the browser calls up a website. In order to see this data, click on the icon in the address bar. Additionally, you can temporarily modify some settings for the active site by clicking on one of the icons found below in the status display. This lets you do things like make pop-up windows go away or prevent larger media files from loading.

Temporary modifications prove useful when you need to enter data in a pop-up window that the add-on would otherwise block by default. In general, you can specify the maximum size permissible for the loading of media files in the configuration dialog's Settings | Default behavior tab. The default value is 50KB.

If the browser content no longer displays due to a configuration that is overly restrictive, you can turn off the extension completely with a click on the large on/off symbol. This action will apply either to the active website or generally to all of the sites on one domain.

If you want to see how uBlock works in real time, click in the status window on the table icon for Open the logger . An empty window will open where all of the connection queries will gradually appear. The queries handled by the extension will be designated with a color (Figure 4).

Figure 4: By choosing Open the logger, you will be able to see all of the connection queries in real time. In the process you can also edit filters manually.

When a filter catches a query (marked in red), clicking on the match pattern in the second column opens the corresponding list. You can get the details for each hit by clicking on the match probability. This opens a new window where you can modify the filter according to your needs.

Practice Test

During testing, I compared the efficiency of uBlock Origin with the performance of the Adblock Plus and Ghostery duo. I used Firefox ESR 45.4.0 for the test systems. I found that the web browser was noticeably more agile with uBlock than it was with Adblock Plus and Ghostery. Advertisement filtering was equally effective with both uBlock Origin and Adblock Plus.

uBlock Origin stood out because it makes Greasemonkey superfluous, thus also saving resources. Adblock Plus, on the other hand, requires Greasemonkey for deactivating ad-block locks. uBlock and uBlock Origin demonstrate far less efficiency, however, when filtering tracking software like pixel counters. Ghostery came out way ahead in this regard.

Therefore, it is a good idea to use Ghostery or TrackerBlock [5] alongside uBlock Origin. Both of these filter all tracking software on websites and prevent the creation of a search profile. Combining these tools with uBlock Origin won't slow Firefox down in any perceptible way. They do, however, reliably cleanse websites of unwanted elements.