The Twelve Tools of December: AdBlock Plus

During the weekdays of December, we're sharing one tool per day as part of our Twelve Tools of December series.  Some of these tools are designed to be used instructionally, some can help you be more productive, and some are just fun.

Today, we're sharing about Adblock Plus.  



What is it?
Adblock Plus is a free extension you can add to any web browser to block out annoying pop-ups, advertisements and banners. With over 300 million downloads, Adblock Plus is one of the most popular browser extensions out there. You can download it for free here: https://adblockplus.org/


Why would I use it?  What does it do?
You know those really annoying (and sometimes inappropriate) ads you see when you launch YouTube videos?  And those annoying pop-ups, banners and ads that slow you down when you’re trying to use the Internet? Adblock Plus blocks out all ads on websites and YouTube videos, unless it feels that the ad is non-intrusive advertising. If you want to lock out even those ads, you can adjust your settings to do so. This is great for student machines and also for teacher machines when projecting videos and websites to students. Also, Adblock Plus does not collect any of your personal data, so you can feel safe when using it.

Are there similar tools? 
There are some very similar tools out there. like Adblock and uBlock. After reading some articles and trying both Adblock and Adblock Plus, I personally chose Adblock Plus as my ad blocker of choice. Here are a few articles about the differences between these extensions that might be worth reading so you can decide which one will be best for you: http://readwrite.com/2014/08/01/adblock-plus-switch-adblock, http://lifehacker.com/ublock-is-a-fast-and-lightweight-alternative-to-adblock-1625246461, http://jackworld.xyz/adblock-vs-adblock-plus/