uBlock Origin is now the most popular Firefox addon

For a long time, the Adblock Plus content blocker held the crown of popularity in the Mozilla Firefox add-on repository. It was followed by Origin of uBlock, another content blocker, which quickly won in terms of number of users.

Now, uBlock Origin has overtaken Adblock Plus in the Firefox Addons Store, making it the number one Firefox extension by number of users.

Mozilla reports that uBlock Origin crossed the 5.5 million user mark, while Adblock Plus has 5.47 million users at the time of writing. If the trend continues, the gap between the two ad blockers will widen in the coming months and years.

UBlock Origin outperforms Adblock Plus in other metrics as well. The average rating is 4.8 out of 5 on the Mozilla Addon Store, while Adblock Plus is rated 4.5 out of 5. As for the number of reviews: uBlock Origin received over 13,200 reviews, thousands more than Adblock Plus 8,500 reviews at the time of writing this article.

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The uBlock Origin extension was first published on the Mozilla Extension Store in April 2015 by its creator Raymond Hill, known as gorhill online. The extension was created after Hill left the uBlock project that he created.

Hill has improved the extension over the years, adding features and improvements on a regular basis. To name a few improvements: blocking WebRTC from leaking IP addresses, permanently removing elements from web pages, blocking JavaScript by default, and addressing new tracking methods such as CNAME tracking,

The Firefox version of uBlock Origin is considered the version that offers the best protection, as it supports protection against CNAME tracking, which the Chrome versions do not offer.

Hill calls uBlock Origin a “broad spectrum content blocker” rather than an ad blocker. The extension blocks more ads, but also trackers, miners, pop-ups, malicious URLs, and more by default. Users can add more lists, for example to deal with internet annoyances.

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Many users hold uBlock Origin in high regard due to its memory and CPU effectiveness. Hill, who never accepted donations or compensation for his development work, is another main reason why the extension is as popular as it is now.

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