Advertising blocker Ublock Origin as a lite version for the first time for Apple’s Safari

Developer Raymond Hill has his advertising blocker Ublock Origins in the Lite variant First presented as a preview for the MacOS version of Safari. The expansion is Via this link in the Mac App Store to find. The app also runs on iOS and iPados and can be used free of charge. For a long time it was only available for Firefox, Edge and – before a blockade by Google – Chrome.

Light performance restriction

Ublock Origin Lite, called Ubol for short, integrates the well-known ublock original filter lists, as well as Easylist, EasyPrivacy and the ad and tracking server list by Peter Lowe. The different rules can be adjusted in the settings (gear icon). According to developer Hill, no permanently running UBOL process is necessary for filtering. “The content filtering based on CSS/JS injection is reliably carried out by the browser itself and not by the expansion.” An integrated service worker process is only required if you interact with the Ubol-Pop-Up window or your options.

According to a discussion on Reddit, an ongoing UBOL reduces The Safari Benchmark results are still around 10 percentunder Chrome, this is supposedly less (3 to 7 percent). However, the blocked advertisement should be more than compensated for. Ubol and its lists are updated regularly. When it comes to advertising blockers, it is always important to consider that many website operators repeatedly use countermeasures. Most recently, the Google subsidiary YouTube had installed a delay in loading videos if an advertising blocker is detected.

Also for iPad, iPhone and Vision Pro

For UBOL, there are currently three modes on Mac, iPhone and iPad in the settings: “Basic” (only a few filters), “optimal” (strong interventions) and “Complete” (possibly with overblocking). Languages / regions and the opportunity to try experimental filters are also configurable. Ubol can also filter “bathroomware”, that is, content that is potentially harmful – but this is not the main task of the advertising blocker.

To implement it, the application must intervene directly into the websites to be filtered. Hill states in the app store that the developer himself does not collect any data from the app. On iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 and iPados 18 are the minimum requirement, on the Mac it is MacOS 15 (Sequoia). Apparently the application also runs on the Vision Pro (from Visionos 2).