Network Filters (The Bouncer)

Block ad requests before the browser downloads them

What it does

Like a bouncer at the door, Network filters cancel HTTP requests to ad servers, trackers, and other unwanted resources before anything loads. This is what makes pages noticeably faster.

  1. GETnews.example.com/index.html200
  2. GETads.doubleclick.net/banner.jscancelled
  3. GETtracker.io/pixel.gifcancelled
  4. GETnews.example.com/style.css200
  5. GETanalytics.example.com/collectcancelled
  6. GETnews.example.com/article.json200

3 of 6 requests cancelled — before any bytes were downloaded.

Network filters work at the wire. Cancelled requests never reach their server, never reach your browser.

How it works

Every page makes dozens of requests for images, scripts, and stylesheets. Network filters match these URLs against a database of known ad and tracker patterns and abort the matching requests immediately.

What you get

  • Stops ads before they download — less data, faster pages
  • Tracking requests never reach their servers
  • Page loads visibly faster on tracker-heavy sites
  • Supports domain, path, and resource-type matching

Turn it on

Active automatically when Ad-Blocking is turned on.

Built on the Ghostery Adblocker engine

Ghostery's ad-blocking is powered by the open-source Ghostery Adblocker library — a fast, memory-efficient filter engine maintained in the open.

View Adblocker on GitHub

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