OverApps lets Mac users replace ads on websites with web apps based around things the user is interested in.
Browsing the internet can be a frustrating experience nowadays. It seems you can't go anywhere online without being assaulted by annoying ads embedded into your favorite web pages. In a way, this makes sense because the websites you're visiting are trying to make money. At the same time, too many ads can quickly become an annoying sensory overload.
How it works
If you want to ditch embedded ads, OverApps provides a neat solution. The next time you come across an ad you simply don't want to see anymore, OverApps can let you cover it up with an app you actually want to see. OverApps gives you the option to choose a variety of different apps to replace the ads in question. There's an app for Facebook, one for Twitter and even one for Flickr. If you'd prefer something less social, you can also choose apps that display top news stories, the weather and pictures of cats, for the more photographically inclined.
How to install
Installing OverApps is simple. OverApps is compatible with Mac OS 10.4 and higher, and works in Firefox. Every time you see an ad on a website you're viewing, you should also see a thin OverApps bar immediately on top of it. Simply click the orange arrow and OverApps will begin its magic.
The first step is to choose what app you want to overlap the specific ad. Apps like Facebook and Twitter will require you to log in and give permission for OverApps to use your data to generate a feed where the ad once was. This is a short, easy process. Once done, you can enjoy a feed of whatever content you've chosen to view. In the case of Facebook and Twitter, you can even update your status directly from the OverApps box, which is really quite cool.
Unfortunately, OverApps doesn't work on every single ad you'll encounter online. Leaderboard (728x90 pixels) and medium rectangle (300x250 pixels) ads are currently covered, but skyscraper ads of 160x600 are not. It also would've been nice to see compatibility with Safari, Apple's own personal web browser. For a beta version, though, it's still pretty comprehensive coverage.
OverApps gives internet surfers an effective and creative option to nix the annoying embedded ads on the sites they visit most.
