Pop-up links everywhere in Safari, please help!
I will try to give as many details as possible, but unfortunately I am not the BEST at knowing when it comes to computers (I'm trying to learn every day though) -- so I'm sorry in advance if any of this is confusing.
I had been having issues with my computer being very slow recently, so I did a Disk Utility update as recommended by a very awesome article I found online. My computer speed has gotten back to normal and I thought everything was great! Until I realized that my Safari has not been fixed. I've tried EVERYTHING.
When my computer was being slow, I updated to the most recent OS X available. I have a Macbook that I purchased for college in 2011 - so the physical computer is not too new, so I thought that giving my computer an update in software would help.
For some reason, though, my Safari has been having so many ads. Like I said, I've tried almost everything I could find. My Safari will pop up with a new ad window almost anywhere I click. I get ads for hotels.com, Mackeeper, Dynamic Pricer... you name it. It's so inconvenient and annoying and I am genuinely hoping there's a way I can fix it. I've been so satisfied with my Mac these past three years but this is just a problem that's reminding me of what I used to run into all the time in the old PC days.
To give you an idea of what I've tried: I've tried AdBlock, removing third party add ons or plug ins, changing my settings in Security and Privacy (the cookie settings, etc), I've tried searching my mac to see if Mackeeper or any of those annoying ads are in my activity monitor.
Please tell me there's a way to get rid of these ads! I don't mind some ads, but just about anywhere I click on my Safari window, I get an ad that pops up into a new tab, so it's leading me to believe something is clearly wrong.
If anyone has any further suggestions for improvement, I will be forever grateful! Usually I can do some research and figure little issues out, but this is persistent and nothing I search has been successful.
Thank you!
MacBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)