Firefox Add-On: Adblock Plus

I loooove ads on web pages. I especially love it when they flash, or start a movie, or start playing audio while I'm trying to read something. In fact, sometimes I take advantage of the extra load time they add so I can meditate.

If, in fact, you aren't as excited by banner ads as I am, you can just avoid seeing them altogether with one of the best Firefox extensions out there, Adblock Plus. Adblock Plus uses a filter system to prevent ads from being loaded at all. You won't see them and they won't slow you down. Sometimes it can make some pages look a little odd, but (sarcasm aside) it's well worth it.

Here's an example of the difference it can make:

First you see ads...


and now you don't:



Yay! I'm actually just fine without a "bay land rover" or "data migration software" so I think I didn't miss much.

To add this extension, go to the Adblock Plus page and click the big green Add to Firefox button. After you restart Firefox, you'll be presented with a page that allows you to select the filter you'd like to use. You can create your own filters, but the filters maintained by someone else are a lot less work. Choose the one most appropriate to your geographical region (probably EasyList + EasyElement USA) and click "Subscribe". Voila, you are now 99% ad free. Enjoy!

Let's all thank Wladimir Palant for making browsing the web less irritating!

Heard about it from: Don't remember... in fact, it will be a while before I plow through the stuff I've been using forever
Get it from: Mozilla Add-On library

Firefox: Add-Ons

Last time, I mentioned Firefox extensions. These are little additions to your browser that allows you to customize it in any number of ways, such as blocking out banner ads, integrating web applications or widgets into your browser, or adding snippets of functionality to the browsing experience.

Mozilla refers to these as "Add-Ons" and maintains a library of them on the Mozilla site. You can add an extension right from within the browser. Just go to the page for that extension and click the "Add to Firefox" button. Note that older extensions that have not been maintained may not work with the newest version of Firefox. You'll have to restart Firefox before the extension will be loaded. You can disable or uninstall any current extensions at any time (this also requires restarting) from the "Tools: Add-ons" menu.

These extensions are written by third-party developers (not Mozilla), so some may be more reliable than others. In fact, it's a good idea to install and check out extensions one at a time to verify that you actually want to use it, that it is stable, and that it doesn't have any strange interactions with any other extensions you may have installed. Also keep in mind that every extension you install makes your browser use up a bit more memory and possibly, run slower. It's not a bad idea to occassionally review your extensions and dump any you don't want or need.

Next up, individual extensions I <3! style="font-weight: bold;">Heard about them from: Probably wherever I heard about Firefox
Get them from: Mozilla Add-Ons or from wherever else the developer makes them available

Application: Firefox

Alright, we have to get the big stuff out of the way first...

The web browser is a big part of most people's experience on a computer these days, especially as more and more applications migrate to the web.

My web browser of choice is Firefox, because it:

• is mature... it's been around since 2004 (that's old in Internet years); version 3 was released in May of 2008
• is stable... although I must add "mostly", as in an ironic spasm, it just crashed as I was writing this post. Yay, technology!
• is secure... vulnerabilities are patched quickly!
• has good performance, including how much memory it uses and how fast it loads pages (although some browsers are sometimes faster)
  
• is full featured and arguably, innovative... Internet Explorer was sort of resting on its laurels after kicking Netscape's ass until Firefox came along
  
• is available on most platforms, including Windows, OS X, Linux, etc.
• is free (although nobody really pays for a browser)
• is standards compliant, which is geekspeak for following the "rules" for translating the source code into the site the user actually interacts with, which is better for everyone except people who have to use a site designed for a non-compliant browser (ahem, Internet Explorer 5)
• is open source, which means the code is not owned by a company such as Apple or Microsoft (and so is less likely to die along with such a company) and oodles of smart people can openly work together on making it better
• has a rising market share, up to second place at around 20%... the more popular a browser is, the more web sites will be tested against it
• is certifiably geek approved!
  

... but for me the kicker is the plethora of Firefox extensions available, also known as Mozilla Add-Ons, which allow you to tweak your version of Firefox to fit your needs or preferences by adding features or changing the interface. Much more to come about those! (Note: other browsers certainly do have extensions, but not nearly the variety that Firefox has available, as far as I know).

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good browsers out there and new ones arriving all the time (e.g. Chrome by Google). Competition is a great thing, but it would take a lot for me to leave all my extensions behind. It may yet happen though!

So if you're still poking along on the browser that came with your computer... give Firefox a try!

Heard about it from: Way to long ago to remember, undoubtedly a geek
Get it from: Mozilla! Be sure you upgrade to version 3 if you haven't already!