Opera Ad Blocker - or would uBlock Origin actually be much lighter?

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

There's a bunch of flags in Opera about ad blocking behavior. I'm not sure if those are enabled - sometimes one doesn't know is default actually disabled or enabled (I'm using Opera Stable (latest)).

The creator of uBlock Origin and HTTPSwitchboard that later became uMatrix created a much much much less cpu & ram consuming and stressing way of 1) doing the measurements and 2) opted for "light" versions of Easylist and Easyprivacy.

Now I wonder does Opera use this or similar - much more advanced (simpler) method of doing calculations (comparing sites & lists)?

Also does Opera use these lighter lists (without element hide rules)?

Can I switch on these lighter stuff from flags? Or should Opera Ad Blocking just be turned off and go to uBlock Origin with non-heavy calculations and lists?

The better Easylist: https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/easylist_noelemhide.txt
Also Easyprivacy here: https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/easyprivacy.txt

And here's detailed background information:

https://github.com/gorhill/httpswitchboard/wiki/Net-request-filtering:-overview
https://github.com/gorhill/httpswitchboard/wiki/Net-request-filtering-efficiency:-HTTP-Switchboard-vs.-Adblock-Plus
https://github.com/gorhill/httpswitchboard/wiki/Adblock-Plus-memory-consumption

Is Opera's Ad Blocker by default using this easier and lighter method?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

As far as I know, Opera uses regular EasyList and EasyPrivacy.

Can I switch on these lighter stuff from flags?

Nope, but you should be able to add that 'light' EasyList and disable the default one in Settings.

Is Opera's Ad Blocker by default using this easier and lighter method?

It seems that only UBlock uses it.

[rejzor]

rejzor last edited by

As far as I know Opera AdBlock is faster because it's integrated deeper in the webpage rendering engine, blocking stuff way earlier than extensions do.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Ok, thanks, here's my follow-up questions:

Opera (stable) flags about adblocking: what does these actually mean?

i)
Advanced selectors for ad-blocking
Mac, Windows, Linux
Enables usage of advanced selectors in ad-blocking element hiding rules.
#adblocker-advanced-selectors

ii)
Split internal ad-blocking rules
Mac, Windows, Linux
Allows selectively enabling internal rules.
#adblocker-split-rules

iii)
Adblocker tagname support
Mac, Windows, Linux
Enables support for taganame selectors in adblocking lists.
#adblocker-tagname-support

Also there's some canvas related flags. Now the, if I rightly understood, renders pages differently meaning elements won't be used. Should this affect default Opera ad-blocking?

Opera ad-blocking more efficient? Yes first I thought that they do ad-blocking in cloud and send the "cleaned" page to the user. But that doesn't seem to be the case: Lists are downloaded local, and local is where ad blocking occurs. Or how?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Lists are downloaded local, and local is where ad blocking occurs.

Yes, this. Ad-Blocking is done locally.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Any insight to those #flags?

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Anything that is integrated into the system will always most likely be better. Unless it doesn't work properly. But Opera's Adblock works with similar lists to other ad blockers and since it's in the browser itself, I'd go for inbuilt. The accuracy and how good it actually is would probably take some time to determine statistic wise.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

adblocker-split-rules

It allows you to manage ad-blocking lists. Disable it and 'Manage Lists' will disappear from the ad-block section in settings.

adblocker-tagname-support

What the description says, it enables/disable support for tagnames in lists.