How to block most website elements with uBlock Origin
A lot of people are already familiar with uBlock Origin (if you aren't it's a pretty robust and customizable ad blocker addon available for most common browsers), but there's a great and simple-to-use feature that goes underlooked by a lot of users: the element picker.
The element picker lets users block specific parts of a website without needing to manually write a filter list. It simply works by selecting the tool (with a pippette icon), highlighting a website element, and then clicking the "create" button to make a blocker for it.
Let's go through an example. Say I'm browsing this website and it decides to put a picture of a clown in the bottom right. Maybe I don't like this clown. So let's get rid of it!
First, select the element picker tool by clicking on the icon for uBlock Origin to open the addon's panel and then selecting the pippette icon:
This tool changes your cursor to a selection tool which highlights web elements. Click the element you want to be rid of, and a panel will open. You can press "Preview" to see what it would look like when blocked, and the "Create" button adds the web element to your blocklist.
Your blocklist can be found in the options of uBlock Origin under "My Filters". Your latest filter applied will be at the very bottom of that list, so if you accidentally block something you didn't want to, just delete it from there.
This method isn't perfect, as it depends on how the website in question has designed its web elements. Sometimes elements need blocking a few times if the site has a few different types of webpages, and sometimes elements are reused and the picker will select some false positives.
This is a great way however to make the web more customizable for you with minimal effort. For example, maybe you find various number stats on social media (such as likes, views, ratings etc.) to be annoying or stressful. Maybe a website has some buttons you keep clicking by mistake or are otherwise not useful to you. Maybe your adblocker just missed a couple adverts. Well, you can just block them all with this.
Make the web more like how you want it to be, get creative with web element blocking!
