How to Block Facebook Ads on Several Browsers

How to Block Facebook Ads on Several Browsers
Page content

Tired of the Ads?

Anyone who has a Facebook page knows that on the right hand side on those little ad blurbs or underneath your applications on the left hand side that are constantly changing depending on what you’ve done on the site that day. These ads are supposed to add to the ‘personality’ that is you, that is, this is Facebook’s way of finding out more about you.

For some users however, what they’ve put in their profile is about as much as they want anyone to know about them. Some times the ads might be offensive to some users of Facebook or they aren’t very interesting; a user could sit there and click off all the ads that appear and state why they don’t like them, but as Facebook users know, not only does this take time, but more ads are just waiting in the wings for the next day.

So it is possible to block Facebook ads? The answer is yes, depending on the browser that you are using.

Mozilla Firefox

As you probably would expect, Mozilla Firefox has a number of little add-ons that will take care of those ads and even some of the application announcements one receives on their page. There are two good ones - GreaseMonkey and AdBlock Plus.

Mozilla Firefox

GreaseMonkey - GreaseMonkey is a script add-on developed primarily for Mozilla Firefox, but which can also be used in other browsers such as Google Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer. It essentially allows a user to customize how pages use Javascript, the software that allows certain functions of a website to run.

AdBlock Plus - Like GreaseMonkey, AdBlock Plus is an add-on for Firefox that allows for the blocking of online advertisements.

Chrome, Opera, & Safari

For users of other open source browsers, the GreaseMonkey add-on will work for these browsers, though installation may not be as easy as installing to Firefox. However, there are also browser specific add-ons.

Chrome - Hide Facebook Ads is a Google Chrome extension that can be added for users of Chrome to effectively block the ads on their Facebook page.

Opera - Facebook itself has a listing of how to block their ads within the browser. It is just a simple matter of putting in the listed links and then restarting your browser.

Safari - The add-on User Content.css will allow users to block Internet ads while using Safari.

Internet Explorer

While the other browsers are becoming extremely popular for users, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the most widely known and used browser. Unfortunately, methods of blocking Facebook ads in IE are a bit more complicated than that of the open source browsers listed above; however it does not mean it can’t be done.

As mentioned, GreaseMonkey can be used within IE; it just does not install as the Firefox add-on would. There is also a way to add in ad content in the form of the built in with the InPrivate Filter that is a part of the new Internet Explorer 8.

As a Facebook user, you will never have to worry about annoying or offensive ads for a very long time.