Web browser extension
uBlock Origin
(
YOO
-blok
[5]
) (previously
uBlock
and originally
μBlock
) is a free and open-source
browser extension
for
content filtering
, including
ad blocking
. The extension is available for
Chrome
,
Chromium
,
Edge
,
Firefox
,
Brave
,
Opera
,
Pale Moon
, as well as versions of
Safari
before 13.
[6]
uBlock Origin has received praise from technology websites and is reported to be much less memory-intensive than other extensions
[7]
[8]
with similar functionality.
[9]
[10]
uBlock Origin's stated purpose is to give users the means to enforce their own (content-filtering) choices.
[11]
[12]
uBlock Origin is actively developed and maintained by its creator and lead developer Raymond Hill.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
uBlock
[
edit
]
uBlock was initially named "μBlock" but the name was later changed to "uBlock" to avoid confusion as to how the Greek letter
μ
(Mu/Micro) in "μBlock" should be pronounced.
[
citation needed
]
Development started by
forking
from the
codebase
of
HTTP Switchboard
along with another blocking extension called uMatrix, designed for advanced users.
[13]
uBlock was developed by Raymond Hill to use community-maintained
block lists
,
[14]
while adding features and raising the
code quality
to
release
standards.
[15]
First released in June 2014 as a Chrome and Opera
extension
, in 2015 the extension became available in other browsers.
[
citation needed
]
A joint Sourcepoint and
comScore
survey reported an 833% growth from November 2014 to August 2015, the strongest growth among adblockers listed.
[16]
The report attributed the growth to the desire of users for pure blockers, outside the "
acceptable ads
" program operated by
Adblock Plus
.
[17]
On April 3, 2015, Hill transferred the uBlock project to Chris Aljoudi due to frustrations with dealing with requests as the project's popularity increased.
[18]
"These projects are to me, not full time job. [
sic
] It stopped being a hobby when it felt more and more like a tedious job. I will keep maintaining my version (and share with whoever care to use it) because it guarantees the tool will match what I want out of it."
[19]
Hill created his own fork and renamed it uBlock Origin on April 6.
[20]
Since October 2017, uBlock Origin has been completely separated from Aljoudi's uBlock.
[21]
Aljoudi created ublock.org to host and promote uBlock and to request donations. In response, uBlock's founder Raymond Hill stated that "the donations sought by ublock.org are not benefiting any of those who contributed most to create uBlock Origin."
[6]
The development of uBlock stopped in August 2015 but there were sporadic updates from January 2017.
[22]
In July 2018, ublock.org was acquired by
AdBlock
and resumed development.
[23]
From February 2019, uBlock began allowing users to participate in "acceptable ads",
[24]
[25]
a program run by Adblock Plus that allows some ads deemed "acceptable" and nonintrusive, and for which larger publishers pay a fee.
[26]
uBlock Origin
[
edit
]
uBlock Origin remains independent and does not allow ads for payment.
[27]
The project refuses donations and instead advises supporters to donate to maintainers of block lists.
[28]
Hill continued to work on the extension under the name uBlock Origin, abbreviated as uBO
[29]
and originally as uBlock
0
.
[30]
In January 2016, uBlock Origin was added to the repositories for
Debian
9 and
Ubuntu
16.04.
[31]
[32]
The extension was awarded "Pick of the Month" by
Mozilla
for May 2016.
[33]
On December 11, 2016, Nik Rolls released a
fork
of uBlock Origin for the Microsoft Edge browser (now known as
Microsoft Edge Legacy
).
[34]
In April 2020, this fork was deprecated as Microsoft replaced Microsoft Edge Legacy with a Chromium-based Edge.
[35]
As of April 2024
[update]
, the uBlock Origin Chrome extension had over 37 million active users and the Firefox version had over 7 million active users.
[36]
[37]
Features
[
edit
]
Blocking and filtering
[
edit
]
uBlock Origin supports the majority of
Adblock Plus
's
filter syntax
. The popular filter lists
EasyList
and EasyPrivacy are enabled by default. The extensions are capable of importing
hosts files
and a number of community-maintained lists are available at installation. Among the host files available, Peter Lowe's ad servers & tracking list and lists of malware domains are also enabled as default. Some additional features include dynamic filtering of scripts and
iframes
and a tool for webpage element hiding.
[
citation needed
]
uBlock Origin includes a growing list of features not available in uBlock, including:
- A mode to assist those with
color vision deficiency
.
- A dynamic URL filtering feature.
- Logging functionality.
- Interface enhancements including a
DOM
inspector, privacy-oriented options to block
link prefetching
, hyperlink auditing, and IP address leaks via
WebRTC
(this feature was removed in version 1.38 on all platforms except Android, as most browsers are no longer vulnerable
[38]
).
Site-specific switches to toggle the blocking of
pop-ups
, strict domain blocking, cosmetic filtering, blocking remote fonts, and JavaScript disabling were also added to uBlock Origin.
[39]
The Firefox version of uBlock Origin has an extra feature which helps to foil attempts by web sites to circumvent blockers.
[40]
CNAME-uncloaking third-party trackers in Firefox
[
edit
]
In November 2019, a uBlock Origin user reported a novel technique used by some sites to bypass third-party tracker blocking. These sites link to URLs that are sub-domains of the page's domain, but those sub-domains resolve to third-party hosts via a
CNAME record
. Since the initial URL contained a sub-domain of the current page, it was interpreted by browsers as a first-party request and so was allowed by the filtering rules in uBlock Origin (and in similar extensions). The uBlock Origin developer came up with a solution using a DNS API which is exclusive to Firefox 60+.
[41]
The new feature was implemented in uBlock Origin 1.25, released on February 19, 2020.
[42]
Performance
[
edit
]
Technology websites and user reviews for uBlock Origin have regarded the extension as less resource-intensive than extensions that provide similar feature sets such as Adblock Plus.
[43]
[44]
[45]
A
benchmark test
, conducted in August 2015 with ten blocking extensions, showed uBlock Origin as the most resource-efficient among the extensions tested.
[46]
uBlock Origin surveys what style resources are required for an individual
web page
rather than relying on a universal
style sheet
. The extension takes a
snapshot
of the filters the user has enabled, which contributes to accelerated browser start-up speed when compared to retrieving filters from cache every time.
[47]
Limitations in Chromium-based browsers
[
edit
]
In 2023, Google made changes known as "Manifest V3" to the WebRequest API used by
ad blocking
and privacy extensions to block and modify network connections.
[48]
[49]
Following Google's implementation of Manifest V3 and the end of support for V2, uBlock Origin's effectiveness is drastically reduced in
Google Chrome
and other
Chromium
-based browsers.
[50]
[51]
[52]
The alternative 'uBlock Origin Lite' for Chromium browsers lacks filter list updates outside of extension updates, and has no custom filters, strict-blocked pages, per-site switches, or dynamic filtering. Non-Chromium browsers such as
Firefox
are unaffected.
[53]
Google has been criticized for implementing some of these features due to its domination in the online advertising market.
[54]
[55]
[56]
[57]
Supported platforms
[
edit
]
uBlock Origin is actively developed for applications based on two major layout engines.
[14]
[43]
[58]
Currently supported
[
edit
]
Previously supported
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Contributors to gorhill/uBlock"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"Changelog for the first versions"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"Release 1.58.0"
. Retrieved
May 21,
2024
.
- ^
"Completed translations"
.
Crowdin.com
. Retrieved
May 16,
2024
.
- ^
"uBlock Origin: README.md"
.
uBlock GitHub Repository
. December 25, 2022 – via
GitHub
.
pronounced you-block origin (/?juː?bl?k/)
- ^
a
b
"uBlock / README.md"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Henry, Alan (January 27, 2015).
"uBlock, the Memory-Friendly Ad-Blocker, Is Now Available for Firefox"
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Brinkmann, Martin (October 10, 2014).
"How to add custom filters to Chrome ad-blocking extension μBlock"
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Schofield, Jack (January 29, 2015).
"Are there any trustworthy sources for downloading software?"
.
TheGuardian.com
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Whitwam, Ryan (February 12, 2015).
"μBlock aims to block ads without draining system resources"
.
ExtremeTech.com
. Archived from
the original
on March 24, 2020
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"uBlock"
.
github.com
. GitHub
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Gardiner, Michael (November 5, 2015).
"Adblock Plus vs. Ghostery vs. Ublock Origin: Not All Adblockers Were Created Equal"
.
International Business Times
. Archived from
the original
on July 22, 2017
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"uMatrix"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Brinkmann, Martin (June 24, 2014).
"uBlock for Chrome is a resource-friendly adblocker by the HTTP Switchboard author"
.
ghacks.net
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Hill, Raymond.
"Changes from HTTP Switchboard"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Levine, Barry (October 14, 2015).
"The Ad Blocker Landscape: What You Need To Know Today"
.
Marketing Land
. Retrieved
October 17,
2015
.
- ^
"The state of ad blocking - September 2015"
. Sourcepoint and comScore. September 16, 2015
. Retrieved
October 17,
2015
.
- ^
Hill, Raymond (April 3, 2015),
"Release 0.9.3.0"
,
gorhill/uBlock
, retrieved
December 8,
2023
- ^
Hill, Raymond.
"Please clarify uBlock
0
vs. uBlock"
.
Github.com
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
Hill, Raymond,
Update README.md
, retrieved
December 8,
2023
- ^
Hill, Raymond (October 21, 2017).
"uBlock Origin is completely unrelated to the web site ublock.org"
.
github.com
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"uBlockAdmin/uBlock"
.
github.com
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"An update on uBlock"
.
ublock.org
. July 13, 2018
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"uBlock Incorporates Acceptable Ads"
. February 23, 2019. Archived from
the original
on November 30, 2019
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"uBlock 0.9.5.13"
.
GitHub
. February 13, 2019
. Retrieved
June 26,
2020
.
- ^
"About Adblock Plus"
.
adblockplus.org
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"MANIFESTO.md"
.
github.com
. Retrieved
December 4,
2019
.
- ^
"Why don't you accept donations?"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
January 20,
2020
.
- ^
"uAssets"
.
github.com
. Retrieved
October 2,
2022
.
Resources for uBlock Origin (uBO) [...]
- ^
"Official uBlock Origin add-on lands for Firefox"
. April 25, 2015
. Retrieved
April 25,
2015
.
- ^
"Debian Sid - uBlock Origin"
. Retrieved
January 21,
2016
.
- ^
"Ubuntu - uBlock Origin"
. Retrieved
January 21,
2016
.
- ^
DeVaney, Scott (May 2, 2016).
"May 2016 Featured Add-ons"
.
Mozilla Add-ons Blog
. Retrieved
May 28,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Rubino, Daniel (December 11, 2016).
"uBlock Origin adblocker now available for Microsoft Edge via the Store"
.
Windows Central
. Retrieved
December 12,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Rolls, Nik (June 12, 2021),
nikrolls/uBlock-Edge
, retrieved
July 9,
2021
- ^
"uBlock Origin Chrome"
.
chrome.google.com
. Retrieved
January 23,
2024
.
- ^
"uBlock Origin Firefox"
.
addons.mozilla.org
. Retrieved
January 23,
2024
.
- ^
"Prevent WebRTC from leaking local IP address"
.
GitHub, gorhill/uBlock
. Retrieved
May 5,
2023
.
- ^
"uBlock wiki"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
June 13,
2015
.
- ^
"Inline script tag filtering ? Overwiew"
.
GitHub, gorhill/uBlock
. Retrieved
March 20,
2017
.
- ^
"uBlock Origin Now Blocks Sneaky First-Party Trackers in Firefox"
.
BleepingComputer
. Retrieved
February 26,
2020
.
- ^
"uBlock Origin 1.25 Now Blocks Cloaked First-Party Scripts, Firefox Only"
.
BleepingComputer
. Retrieved
February 26,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"uBlock ad blocker added to Mozilla's extensions site"
.
Jim Lynch, Technology and Other Musings
. Archived from
the original
on June 9, 2015
. Retrieved
February 17,
2015
.
- ^
Kesari, Varun (October 28, 2017).
"Adblock Plus vs uBlock Origin | Which one to Choose In 2017? | RMG"
.
rootmygalaxy.net
. Retrieved
October 28,
2017
.
- ^
Harper, Christopher (May 2, 2015).
"uBlock Origin - Better Than AdBlock Plus? - Make Tech Easier"
.
Make Tech Easier
. Retrieved
May 27,
2017
.
- ^
"10 Ad Blocking Extensions Tested for Best Performance"
.
Raymond Tech Resources
. August 26, 2015
. Retrieved
August 26,
2015
.
- ^
"Notes on memory benchmarks, selfies"
.
uBlock GitHub documentation
. Retrieved
February 17,
2015
.
- ^
Amadeo, Ron (November 21, 2023).
"Google Chrome will limit ad blockers starting June 2024"
.
Ars Technica
.
Archived
from the original on November 22, 2023
. Retrieved
November 22,
2023
.
- ^
Tung, Liam.
"Google Chrome could soon kill off most ad-blocker extensions"
.
ZDNet
.
Archived
from the original on December 19, 2020
. Retrieved
June 13,
2019
.
- ^
"Chrome Users Beware: Manifest V3 is Deceitful and Threatening"
. December 9, 2021.
- ^
"uBO Lite"
.
GitHub
.
- ^
"More details on the transition to Manifest V3"
.
- ^
"Mozilla reaffirms that Firefox will continue to support current content blockers"
. September 24, 2022.
- ^
Cyphers, Bennett (August 30, 2019).
"Don't Play in Google's Privacy Sandbox"
.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
. Retrieved
April 25,
2024
.
- ^
O'Reilly, Lara.
"Google is once again dictating the future of the online ad industry and all its rivals can do is brace for impact"
.
Business Insider
. Retrieved
April 25,
2024
.
- ^
Cyphers, Alexei Miagkov and Bennett (December 14, 2021).
"Google's Manifest V3 Still Hurts Privacy, Security, and Innovation"
.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
. Retrieved
April 25,
2024
.
- ^
Claburn, Thomas.
"Ad blockers struggle under Chrome's new rules"
.
www.theregister.com
. Retrieved
April 26,
2024
.
- ^
"Apple - Safari - Safari Extensions Gallery"
. Apple. Archived from
the original
on March 10, 2016
. Retrieved
February 19,
2015
.
- ^
"What is Kiwi Browser about ?"
.
Kiwi Browser
. September 22, 2019.
- ^
"el1t/uBlock-Safari"
.
github.com
. Retrieved
January 19,
2017
.
- ^
"Catalina compatibility · Issue #156 · el1t/uBlock-Safari"
.
github.com
. Retrieved
August 18,
2019
.
- ^
"Explanation of the state of uBlock Origin (and other blockers) for Safari"
.
GitHub
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
UBlock
.