Earlier this week we have published an article of Privacy Palette, a new app in the Google Chrome Webstore. It is an app that provides all the security, privacy and adblocking features you require to browse secure, private and free of annoyances. This short tutorial will show you how you can block all ads with Privacy Palette.
Besides 11 other privacy and security features, Privacy Palette partnered with Adblock Plus to integrate world’s most popular adblocker in the app. How Adblock Plus can be activated from Privacy Palette will be shown in the following steps:
1. Install Privacy Palette
First, access Privacy Palette in the Chrome Webstore by opening this link. The following screen will show up:
Please click “Add to Chrome” in the top-right corner. After you clicked “Add to Chrome”, a warning will show that Privacy Palette requires certain permissions. Click on “Add” to continue.
2. Open Privacy Palette
Once the installation was successful, you can access Privacy Palette for the first time. It accessed by clicking on the icon which can be found in the Google Chrome start-up screen, as shown here:
3. Block all ads
When Privacy Palette has been opened, you can block all ads by clicking on “Enable” of the “Block Ads” feature:
After clicking on “Enable”, click on “Install” and “Add” to add Adblock Plus to your browser. After this has been completed, you will be fully protected against all annoying ads!
Privacy Palette is an easy-to-use app, with all the key privacy, security and adblocking functions one requires to retain control over your browser.
Privacy Palette is the only Google Chrome Dashboard with all indispensable features to protect yourself from tracking, ads and much more. Since its launch in January, Privacy Palette has become the 2nd most popular app in the ‘Search & Browsing Tools’ category within a month.
The Features
As the name implies, Privacy Palette offers a wide variety of features to protect your online privacy and security. In its current state (v. 0.2), it offers the following features:
- Block all ads (with Adblock Plus)
- Disable Tracking
- Control Ad Tracking
- Manage Privacy Settings of Facebook, Twitter and Google
- Delete Cookies
- Delete Browsing History
- Clear Cache
- Clear Data Storage
- Clear Plugin-data
- Clear Download History
Basically, Privacy Palette is a simple dashboard with all the required security and privacy settings in one screen. After installing the app, you will have full control over what Google and other companies can track and see. Privacy Palette sets itself apart by combining privacy, security and adblocking into one app. After installing this app, you will not need dozens of apps and extensions to protect yourself, all important features will be at the tip of your finger.
Privacy Palette’s interface: as you can see, it simplistic design makes it incredibly easy to use.
Privacy Palette can be downloaded and installed here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/privacy-palette-adblock-%2B/mjkcflkplhgpebknipkekjggglimnone
The extensions have been banned from the ‘regular’ store, and are hidden on the bottom on the page and taken out of the default search.
Currently, only the apps rank in the critical ‘Popular’ and ‘Trending’ sections of the store. In addition, the search function of the Webstore is ‘broken’, and is by default set to only search for apps. So why these changes all of the sudden? The apps and extensions stood side-by-side for a long time in the webstore, until Google decided to do something against this on December 7th. The extensions were banned from the store and search, causing a sharp decline in impressions and installs for some of the world’s most popular extensions such as Adblock Plus.
The detrimental decline in installs and impressions
One extension developer made a screenshot of the effect of the banning of the extensions. It is easy to see the detrimental result in installs and impressions for this extension. Google made extensions very unattractive to the general public. It could even be argued that the average user is currently unable to identify and install the extensions in the Chrome Webstore.
Google’s point of view
So why did Google make this somewhat awkward and game-changing move? According to Joe Martini, Developer Advocate for Chrome, gives the argument that users could not easily identify the difference between extensions and apps. By separating these two, it is argued that both apps and extensions get higher quality users, and the overall satisfaction with the Chrome Webstore would increase. Finally, it is argued by Google that users should know the difference between apps and extensions, because extensions have more powerful capabilities as apps do.
The actual consequence
Now Google does have a point here. It is important for users to know the difference between apps and extensions. There might be some crappy extensions available in the Webstore, and Google does not want unknowing users to provide full access to their own browsing habits to these dodgy extensions. However, banning and hiding the extensions from the store and search is definitely not the way how to address this problem. Extensions provide browser-users with huge additional value. It augments the user’s online experience by offering a set of powerful tools to customize the way users want to browse the web. For example, the lack of availability of easy access to extensions such as Adblock Plus, will in the longterm effect the satisfaction of Google Chrome users.
It might be argued that extensions (or Add-ons) for Firefox have been one key arguments why Firefox became so popular in the early 2000′s and elevated Chrome’s success in the 2010′s. Google seems to neglect the value that extensions create for Chrome users. This negligence might lead to developers to start creating apps instead of extensions, negatively influencing the overall browser’s capabilities.
Instead of separating apps and extensions, Google could have considered a better visual representation of the difference between the two, as well as start educating the users. Both solutions would accomplish the same goal, and did not need such a radical solution.
Google promised “We will closely monitoring the results of these changes”, so they know the effect of the current changes. We will closely monitor Google, and report on any changes that will happen in the nearby future.
Dez 12
11
New Chrome app: Adblock Plus
***App is removed from the Chrome WebStore. The Adblock Plus Extension is still available***
Until about a week ago, there was no significant difference between the apps and extensions in the Chrome Webstore. Both were featured next to each other in the ‘Most Popular’ and ‘Trending’ sections of the webstore. But then, Google decided to remove all extensions from the Chrome Webstore, and relocated them to the bottom of webstore. This caused quite the stir amongst the developers of Chrome extensions, because it suddenly became very difficult to search for extensions. For regular users it can tricky to find and install an adblocker. Therefore, Adblock Plus created this very easy app, which will check whether you are protected against obtrusive advertising. It you have no adblocker installed, it provides you with the best adblocker currently available: Adblock Plus (http://adblockplus.org).
1. Installation
You can download and install Adblock Plus here
Click on the “Add to Chrome button”
2. Start Adblock
Once the application has been installed, run it for the first time:
3. Run App
If you do not have an adblocker installed, this screen will show. Please click on the “Install Adblock Plus” button.
4. Install Adblock Plus
By clicking on the “Install Adblock Plus” button, the most powerful extension for Google Chrome (used by over 6.5 million users) will be installed. Click on “Add” to confirm, and you can enjoy the web adfree!
For more information about adblocking and Adblock Plus:
Website: http://adblockplus.org
Google Chrome Extension of ABP: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb
Google Chrome App: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus-free/fjhfknnbjlgoljklebnnecbajgkchpkc
Apr 12
13
Chrome Adblock Video
Adblock Plus for Google Chrome is a free browser extension that removes all annoying ads from any website. Once installed, all distractions such as banners, popups and overlays are magically gone. With Adblock Plus, all websites including Google and Facebook are ad-free. It even blocks the video ads from Youtube videos. This way you can surf the web faster and without any annoyances.
Adblock Plus is available as a browser extension for both Firefox and Google Chrome. Check out this video that explains how easy it is to install Adblock Plus on Google Chrome:
Adblock Plus is 100% free and setup takes only a few seconds. You can get it here.
Now its official: Adblock Plus for Google Chrome is the most useful extension for Google Chrome. In the article “5 seriously useful Chrome extensions” by cnet editor Sharon Vaknin, Adblock Plus is first in the selection of her favourite Chrome extensions and apps. The other recommended Chrome extensions are Screen Capture, Read Later Fast, Xmarks and StayFocusd.
Jun 11
24
Awesome Screenshot Plugin
The Awesome Screenshot plugin for Chrome browser lets you capture a web page or any portion of it, annotate it with figures and text while also allowing you to blur any sensitive information, and upload with a single click to share it with the intended person. This handy tool is great for highlighting relevant or required information on the web page to colleagues.
Quite often while surfing the web for the desired info, you may come across the relevant information which is subtly mentioned on a web page, needing to be highlighted to a colleague, client or a friend. Even if the web page link is shared and the information is mentioned in the correspondence, it will take considerable time for them to find it. The Awesome Screenshot saves the hassle and places a browser icon in the web address bar of the Chrome browser.
As soon as you feel the need to highlight something on the webpage, you can click on this button to capture or clip the selected area, or all visible portion of the page, or the entire page, annotate it with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and text and save locally. Also, you can crop the selected area and use the eraser to hide sensitive information. The image file can be shared locally, or you can upload it in one-click to awesomescreenshot.com and get a shareable link which can be accessed by your peers with the accentuated portions. The images saved online can be extremely large in size without a worry about crashes.
This smart application is a great addition to the repertoire of web designers, researchers, and even average users who would like to capture, emphasize, keep, and share the information available online. The Awesome Screenshot extension stays true to its name by functioning extremely well with the Google Chrome platform.
The new Chrome extension and theme review site chrome-plugins.org has reviewed about 30 plug-ins so far. Top of the list, unsurprisingly, is Chrome Adblock Plus!
The new review site for Chrome extensions has a different approach than comparable websites like the Chrome web-store. This website adds descriptions that are not written by the developers themselves. Also, the toplist of Chrome extensions is not based on their number of downloads but on the rating the extension has received by the editors. This way, developers without a marketing budget can get a high ranking, even if they don’t have the resources to promote their download with marketing activities.
Adblock Plus, a non-profit project, has received high ratings by both the editors of the website as well as the users, who also can leave a comment without having to register. The review contains a general description of the functionality of Adblock Plus and also explains how the add-on can be configured in a way to serve more functions than just blocking advertisements from websites. As stated in the review, by adding additional filter lists ABP can block a lot more, e.g. tracking, Facebook integration and other annoyances.
The high ranking in the top-10 list of the most popular Chrome extensions was achieved by ranking high in the three major criteria the overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars is based on: Functionality, Performance and Design. While The Functionality and the Performance was rated with the best possible grade, the editors perceive that there is room for improvement in the design of the Adblock Plus extension.
If you are using Adblock Plus for Google Chrome you know how peaceful the internet can be without advertising. But the internet has more annoyances than you can see: most websites load a lot of script in the background you won’t even notice. These script are tracking you on every click you make on websites and are aimed to create a profile about you habits and interest. Probably the most common tracking code is Google Analytics, a tool that lets websites track all user activity.
User tracking has many advantages (Google Analytics is placed on this website as well) as a better knowledge about user preferences can be used to optimize websites and provide content that reflects the interests of the users of a website. The generated data is being analysed anonymously so no visitor will be tracked individually. However, users who are concerned about their privacy can now easily disable all tracking from websites.
All that needs to be done is add a tracking protection lists to you filter subscriptions. The most popular tracking protection filter list is EasyPrivacy, a supplement to the adblocking EasyList. To enable EasyPrivacy, you need to go to the Chrome Adblock Plus Options, click on the Filter Lists tab and manually add the following URL:
https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/easyprivacy+easylist.txt
This will enable the tracking protection feature and lets you surf the web without worrying about any company like Google or Facebook generating data with your browsing habits.
Google is always on the hunt for bugs to improve the Chrome browser. In order to identify errors in the code, Google is regularly giving away bounties to the researches who find and report the bugs. Prior to the release of version 11, Google paid out the record sum of $16,500 to bug-researchers. As reported by Computerworld, 27 bugs were fixed, 18 of them with a high vulnerability. Six of the bugs received the threat level “medium”, only three of them were rated “low”. None of the bugs was “critical”, the highest vulnerability level.