(no subject)

[andrewducker]

I finally got around to installing AdBlock for Firefox. Not only does it have instantaneous flash-blocking, but will also block pretty much anything based on a pattern you give it. So far I'm blocking:

*adserve*
http://www.theinquirer.net/images/ads/*
http://img.shopping.com/*
http://images.resellerratings.com/*
*adtech*
*adstream*
*doubleclick*
*UploadFilesForNewegg*
http://ads.guardian.co.uk/*
http://ak.bluestreak.com*
http://a.as-eu.falkag.net/*
*/ads/*

which between them have taken out 95% of the ads I see on a daily basis.

Add in the fact that Firefox blocks popups and surfing has become much less cluttered and annoying.

Comments

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of adblocking software, but I won't use it. Why? Because sites recoup their costs through ad impressions. And I want my favorite sites to stay up.

(This doesn't include things like pop-ups. I won't be a martyr for my cause!)

[andrewducker]

I don't do it for non-annoying ads. Still ads, or ones that suit the pages I'm on, or google's text-based ads are fine by me.

My filters

[derumi.livejournal.com]

I've specifically avoided blocking /ad/ and /ads/ in case I need to delve into the medical or scientific fields online.

*espn.starwave.com/ad/*
*Realmedia/ads/*
*doubleclick.net*
*.aol.com/_ads/*
*fastclick.net
http://rightmedia.net
*/ad?*
http://rightmedia.net/click?*
*click*
*.advertising.com
*.adsdk.com

Blocking *click* makes two of my previous filters redundant, and the leading wildcard on the domain names isn't really needed. Not sure why I had two filters for rightmedia.net, unless it placed the non-click one in the middle of my list after I presumably found out the longer string didn't work. Took out the shorter string to see if I get more ads or not.

Anyhoo, I dunno what percentage of adverts I've been blocking, but I don't see the ads that annoy me the most anymore, and I haven't done any changes in the past month or so except to add adsdk.com.