M1 Macs - Do we actually need an Ad blocker?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,


Here is a good question, questioning the fundamentals!


M1 Macs - Do we actually need an Ad blocker for safari?

Is Ad blockers actually slowing down the optimised M1 safari browser, and causing other issues?

Is Intel Ad Blockers, running through Rosetta 2, causing issues in particular?




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In my case:

No ad blocker for the last week, on a 3.5 month old M1 MBA, and the speed of safari has been great! No sluggishness, like when I had the ad blocker "AdGuard" running on Safari.

I originally loaded the Ad blocker on autopilot. I have Firefox as an extension on my iPhone, and just thought it was one of those "must haves".

.... kinda like I auto thought I needed anti-virus as well on my 1st Mac.

Ok, when I come across a web site with a ridiculous amount of adverts on the it, such that the page won't load correctly or the info content is less than the crap adverting, then I can always vote with my feet, and leave the site and find the info else where etc.
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Food for thought eh?

Be great to hear your thoughts



Best wishes

Martin

 

[chabig]

M1 or Intel—same consideration whether you want an ad blocker or not. The chip architecture has no bearing on it.

I use Magic Lasso. For more ideas, see

Ad Blocker - Any native apps out there I can use?

Hi All, My M1 MBA I've been having issues with ADGUARD with safari. (Crashes, sluggishness and battery.) I've turn't it off recently, to see if it really is ADGUARD that is causing my MBA to pink screen crash/restart, on top of the weird battery behaviour and sluggish safari. Give it a week...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Feyl]

I'm using AdGuard and everything runs great on my M1 Mac mini.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

No issues with me. If anything the web pages load faster, because they’re not downloading all the adverts.

 

[bobcomer]

I don't run an adblocker on any OS. A lot of sites that have good information rely on ad income, probably Macrumors is one of them.

And no, I don't control any of those sites, just a consumer like most people, but I don't like getting something for nothing...

 

[Fishrrman]

Seems to me one would want an ad blocker/tracking blocker using an m-series Mac, for the same reasons one would want these tools using any other Mac...

 

[jerryk]

I use a Raspberry pi running pi-hole to block almost all ads and links to fishing sites. For services that depend on ads like MacRumors, I donate money directly so they get 100%.

 

[xraydoc]

I use 1Blocker. Apple Silicon native. Doesn't appear to impact browsing speed at all. And I don't get bombarded with ads, pop ups and auto-playing videos on virtually every site I visit. I had to use a work computer last week without an ad blocker and forgot what it was like to try to browse websites without some kind of ad blocker.

I elect to allow non-obtrusive ads to support the some of the sites I frequent and will donate to others (like this one).

 

[Leon1das]

I use adblocker uBlock origin in Chrome M1 for:

- removing ads in Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube Music... all are completely gone...

- removing page elements and webfonts: remove all Google branding in Google search results, Gmail (without Gmail logo and extended search box), customized looking Google Keep, customized Outlook webmail.

 

[Jack Neill]

I use AdGuard DNS at the router and 1Blocker on the go.

 

[Never mind]

Ad Blocker - Any native apps out there I can use?

Hi All, My M1 MBA I've been having issues with ADGUARD with safari. (Crashes, sluggishness and battery.) I've turn't it off recently, to see if it really is ADGUARD that is causing my MBA to pink screen crash/restart, on top of the weird battery behaviour and sluggish safari. Give it a week...

forums.macrumors.com

why do you need to threads on the same subject?

 

[rui no onna]

I use 1Blocker. Apple Silicon native. Doesn't appear to impact browsing speed at all. And I don't get bombarded with ads, pop ups and auto-playing videos on virtually every site I visit. I had to use a work computer last week without an ad blocker and forgot what it was like to try to browse websites without some kind of ad blocker.

I elect to allow non-obtrusive ads to support the some of the sites I frequent and will donate to others (like this one).

Yep. I have no issues with static banner ads particularly when they're relevant to the page I'm currently browsing. I disable my ad-blocker on a per site basis. If the ads aren't too awful, I leave it disabled for that site. However, the full-page pop ups, etc., I'm not willing to tolerate.

 

[dogslobber]

Ads are malware attack vectors so make sure to block them all.

 

[bobcomer]

Ads are malware attack vectors so make sure to block them all.

They can be, but as long as you don't do something stupid, they wont infect you. (and have the right AV software)

 

[MBAir2010]

I'm confused- a bit
"M1 Macs - Do we actually need an Ad blocker for safari?"
i would type yes because
i worked for an internet company and did some coding
this ended for in 2019
Our websites were for local businesses
i dont remember us developing for certain platform of processors.
our programer did adjust for iPads and mobile devices.
I would check these on a MacBook at home to make sure they functioned
other than that we did not design for certain platforms.

hopefully im not off topic, or on mars with my reply, which i might delete soon

i have noticed that Safari lets more ads through compared to Edge.
on twitter and on ESPN today were safari had a reeses peanut butter ad in the background while Edge did not.

 

[nylon]

I'm using WIPR which is universal i.e. M1/Intel native.

 

[BigMcGuire]

AdGuard Pro here. I can't stand ads, M1 or Intel.

 

[MrElvey]

I'm using AdGuard and everything runs great on my M1 Mac mini.

It's running in Rosetta, not natively on the M1, so that's surprising.

 

[Feyl]

It's running in Rosetta, not natively on the M1, so that's surprising.

View attachment 1761874

It really runs as good as I'm used to with other devices. No problem ?

 

[Muzosh2]

Take a look at Wipr. It basically just tells Safari what to block and does not interfere with it.

It works perfectly, NO excess battery consumption (AdGuard for example had the same energy impact as Safari atleast for me, which means that browsing time was halved), NO complicated configuration, where you don't know, what some preference even means and NO menu-bar icon (its completely integrated into safari).

One more BIG plus for me: you do not have to give it permissions to access what are you actually looking at while browsing - other adblocks need that so it can scan the data a potentially block it. Wipr just defines the general rules and imports them into safari, which is then doing the actual blocking.

You just buy it once, turn it on, approve it in safari and you never see it again.

PS: one small flaw - cannot completely block youtube ads, you get a white page at the start of a video and you have to manually click "Skip add" - BUT atleast you dont have to wait 5/15/30 seconds to skip that, you can skip it immediately.
But I think other adblockers cant block youtube ads that easily either.