How To Block Ads in Safari

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple, Inc. and released in 2003 and became the default browser on the Mac OS X. It is now available in Mac OS and Windows versions. Safari has many features that are not available in other browsers that allow for its ease of use. However, some versions of Safari do not allow you to set preferences to block ads from popping out when you visit a website. There is a way to it, though which involves some CSS scripting that needs to be downloaded and added to the Safari tools. Other browsers have plug-ins that you can download and install and the ads will be automatically blocked by setting up the ad blocking preferences. Ads are necessary for most sites as these are passive income generators but for the surfers it can be annoying as it takes time for the site to load before you can start to browse. Here are the steps to take when you want to block ads in Safari.

* Visit the Floppymoose website and download the user content CSS file. This is the script that will be used to change the properties of Safari and instruct it to block ads from different websites.
* Save the userContent.css script in the folder that contains the files for the Safari browser.
* Launch Safari and click the Preferences menu and choose the Advanced tab. The drop down will show all the options that you can choose to set up your browser to your liking. Look for the userContent.css and select it.
* Relaunch Safari. The ads from the webpages will no longer be there.
* There are developers that are working on a program that you can download and install as a plug-in for Safari for Mac. One such project is called Safari Adblock. It is under the GPL license and can be downloaded freely. It is in continuing development although you can already download a copy of the latest version for Mac OS X 10.5+ available at the BurgerSoftware website.
* You can also download and install the ClickToFlash plug-in to block flash-based ads. The latest stable version of this program is 1.5.5, which is suitable for use on a Mac OS X 10.4 up to 10.6. The program will allow you to block flash ads, view flash ads in one click, and play YouTube videos using QuickTime instead of flash and select websites where you can allow flash ads to play.

You can read more about the features of Safari web browser without downloading the software in the Wikipedia pages. Although most ads especially pop up ones are annoying you have to remember that some websites depend on these ads to survive especially those relying on support from pay per click advertising and they need you to help them keep the website alive and continue to give you a good source of information. Make sure that you really do not want the ads to appear, otherwise just put up with a little inconvenience.