Ian Reppel

• • 2 min

Making the Web Palatable with uBlock Origin and uBlacklist

Two browser extensions can reduce insufferable content on the web: uBlock Origin and uBlacklist.

I browse the web on my phone (Safari on iOS) and various laptops (Firefox or Chrome on macOS). Because of that, I needed a cross-platform solution. I abhor ads, so I already used AdGuard Pro on iOS and uBlock Origin on macOS. Unfortunately, uBlock Origin does not exist for iOS.

Filters for uBlock Origin and AdGuard Pro

Both uBlock Origin and AdGuard Pro block ads and many common annoyances. Both support regex-based filters, with which I can:

  • Bypass the “Log in with Google” popup on many websites.
  • Avoid articles on specific topics or entire sections (e.g. sports) in The Guardian.
  • Skip tedious and repetitive content on Hacker News (e.g. CEO worship).

Here is a representative excerpt of the full 500+ lines of filters in my setup:

! Login with Google popups
accounts.google.com/gsi/*

! The Guardian
www.theguardian.com##main *:has-text(/sports|football|golf|cycling|cricket|tennis/i)
www.theguardian.com##main *:has-text(/fashion|beauty|wellness|skincare|makeup/i)

! Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com##.athing:has(.sitestr:has-text(youtube.com))
news.ycombinator.com##.athing:has(.sitestr:has-text(youtube.com)) + tr

news.ycombinator.com##.athing:has(.sitestr:has-text(quantamagazine.org)):not(:has(.title:has-text(/quantum/i)))
news.ycombinator.com##.athing:has(.sitestr:has-text(quantamagazine.org)):not(:has(.title:has-text(/quantum/i))) + tr

news.ycombinator.com##.athing:has(.title:has-text(/\b(musk|altman|zuckerberg|zuck|pichai|nadella|tim cook|jensen huang|bezos|thiel)\b/i))
news.ycombinator.com##.athing:has(.title:has-text(/\b(musk|altman|zuckerberg|zuck|pichai|nadella|tim cook|jensen huang|bezos|thiel)\b/i)) + tr

The two-line combos for Hacker News are needed to get rid of links to the article as well as the comments. You simply drop these verbatim in:

  • uBlock Origin: Settings → My filters
  • AdGuard Pro: Safari Protection → User rules

And you are spared links on CEO worship, tips on coordinating makeup with fashion, or any confused articles from Quanta Magazine that satisfy neither expert nor layperson.

Cleaning up search with uBlacklist

For keeping search results clean in Google, DuckDuckGo, or whichever search engine you use, I rely on uBlacklist’s filters. uBlacklist subscriptions are user-maintained collections of filters that are often a good starting point to clean up search results without much manual configuration.

There are more than 250 entries in my filters, but here are a few to get a taste of what’s possible:

# Images
*://*.pinterest.com/*
*://*.gettyimages.com/*

# Shopping
*://*.aliexpress.com/*
*://*.wayfair.com/*
*://*.overstock.com/*

Thanks to these filters, I never see search results for any of the URL patterns listed. You can add them via the Options menu.

The web is not getting better on its own, but, with the right tools, it is relatively easy to make it better for yourself.

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