The blessings and curses of adblocking plugins

One of my favorite things about the internet is that content is free.  Sure we have to pay our ISPs to connect to the web, but the pages we visit provide very useful enriching content that often takes a lot of work without asking you to pay anything.  The main way they pay for this is through online advertising, banner ads Google Adwords, etc.

This is all well and good as long as the ads are tasteful and not obtrusive or distracting - which leads me to one thing I hate about the internet, crazy ads that just hurt my eyes.  Some websites overload you with advertising some of which can be scams or malicious software advertisements, things you don't want to click on.  Enter Adblock browser plugins.  These plugins are useful to eliminate browsing distractions and are generally a very good thing to add to any browser.


Adblock browser plugins like Adblock Plus work off a list of known advertisers automatically blocking them across the web.  You can whitelist or blacklist entire sites or just specific ad publishers.  It's a powerful tool that I have been enjoying for years.  Before I share what I use, a word about the ethics of using adblocker software.

There are people that work full-time in the internet content publishing industry.  Some of your favorite websites to get content from and enjoy your social networking pay for some or all of their operating costs through online advertising. Advertising is what keeps the internet free and drives high-quality content and websites.  Adblocking software should never be used to get something for free that cost someone else hard-earned money.  That is why I recommend that if you like a website or blog (like this one) and the content they offer, disable your adblocking software on that site (whitelist it) so that they can get paid.

The best adblocker out there in my opinion is Adblock Plus.  ABP is a Firefox browser plugin that lets you blog picture and flash advertising accross the internet.  If you're using Firefox, you can download the plugin here: Adblock Plus for Firefox

Once you download the plugin, simply restart the browser and you should be asked to subscribe to a blocking list, the default (Fanboy's List) or "EasyList USA."  At this point you're good to go.  If you come across an ad or picture you wish to block, simply right click on it and block it with Adblock Plus.  If you notice, Adblock Plus added an icon in the shape of a red stop sign to your toolbar.  If you notice a site not working properly or would like to turn off Adblock temporarily or for a specific site, click (or right click) the icon and there will be options to disable it there.

If you're rocking the Google's Chrome Browser (like me), there are a few adblocking options, but not as robust as Adblock Plus for Firefox.  I like the Adblock extention here: Adblock for Chrome

Once you install the extension, you may also want to install a toolbar icon for easy access.  You can find that here: Adblock toolbar button

If you would like to whitelist a website with the Adblock for Chrome extension, simply press the CTRL+Shift+L keys.  You can edit your whitelist in the extension settings.

By all means use adblock plugins to hide the worst of the internet, crappy ads, invasive pictures.  But for the sake of the free (internet) world, please disable it for sites you know and love - it will help keep internet content free.  Questions, comments?  Leave them in the comments section.