I consider the internet in 2025 to be more or less unusable without adblock. uBlock Origin is the best I know of, by far. And since Google has forced it to shut down in Chrome (see antitrust), that means I only use Firefox. But even then, the regular uBlock Origin lets a lot of first-party spam through, especially on sites like Youtube. So here's a list of custom rules for uBlock Origin that I use to make Youtube more tolerable. These will remove chat, comments, reels, shorts, and other promoted content unrelated to your actual query.
www.youtube.com###chat www.youtube.com###comments www.youtube.com###content-section www.youtube.com###offer-module www.youtube.com##grid-shelf-view-model.ytGridShelfViewModelHostHasBottomButton.ytd-item-section-renderer.ytGridShelfViewModelHost:nth-of-type(1) www.youtube.com##grid-shelf-view-model.ytGridShelfViewModelHostHasBottomButton.ytd-item-section-renderer.ytGridShelfViewModelHost:nth-of-type(2) www.youtube.com##grid-shelf-view-model.ytGridShelfViewModelHostHasBottomButton.ytd-item-section-renderer.ytGridShelfViewModelHost:nth-of-type(3) www.youtube.com##ytd-horizontal-card-list-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer www.youtube.com##ytd-shelf-renderer
And some for LinkedIn, now that LinkedIn is mostly promoted content. These remove all promoted and shallow content, so all I get is actual posts by connections, rather than an instagram-like feed of things connections "liked".
www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Accelerate your job search')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'celebrates this')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'find a job that matches your skills')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'finds this funny')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'finds this insightful')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Job search smarter')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'likes this')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'LinkedIn Premium')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Looking for a remote job?')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'loves this')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Open more opportunities')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'other connections follow')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Pick up where you left off with our job search tools')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Popular course on LinkedIn Learning')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Reactivate your free trial')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Restart your free trial')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Retry Premium for free')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'See all your profile viewers')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,"See who's hiring")]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'Suggested')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..) www.linkedin.com##:xpath(//span[text()[contains(.,'supports this')]]/../../../../../../../../../../..)
You know what's absolutely insane? These LinkedIn rules only filter out promoted content and "reactions". They don't modify or remove posts by any of the thousands of individuals to whom I'm connected or the hundreds of organizations I follow. And when I apply these rules, more often than not my homepage looks like this:
EVERYTHING has been filtered out. That means the first couple dozen items were going to be nothing but ads and reactions. LinkedIn wasn't going to serve me a single post from anyone in my network. Not surprising in 2025. If I search for something generic on Amazon, or even if I search for something very specific including the brand and product name, the first page or two is usually promoted products and not the thing I searched for. If I search for anything on Google that could possibly be connected to money changing hands somewhere, the first page of results are all going to be irrelevant and promoted. Dead Internet Theory is alive and well. Hopefully these rules will help you keep it under control.