I often hear people complain about the advertisements they see on the Internet. They opine at having these horrific ads on the sides of articles they read that have nothing to do with things they want to see. Some people just want to read the article that they’ve clicked on, not see a huge box telling them to buy this product or that product. Whenever someone tells me about this, I have to stop and remember that most people haven’t thought to figure out a way to fix this.
Almost six years ago, the most popular internet browser today was born — Google Chrome. Actually, its ‘birthday’ is only 2 days away (September 2nd). I remember when it first came out and I downloaded it to begin using as my primary internet browser. It was so faster than Internet Explorer and Firefox. This was nothing against those two browsers, but Google Chrome was like a stripped down version of both of them. I remember that it seemed the norm that you’d have these toolbars that would ceaselessly need to be uninstalled. There were also these menus that took up a lot of screen real estate. I simply wanted to “surf the net” with as much screen space as possible.
So, when Chrome came out, it was like perfect.
A little over a year after Chrome came out, they launched something called Extensions. I don’t really remember what was being said about it at the time, but I do remember that there was this ‘golden’ extensions called “AdBlock.” This particular extension did exactly what it sounds like it does — blocked advertisements. Of course, certain types of ads would still make their way through the AdBlock, but that was because they were still working out the kinks. Over time, the number of ads that would make it through dwindled.
It’s been almost 5 years and it has to be one of my most favorite features of Chrome. The ability to limit the barrage of advertisements makes my internet experience much more enjoyable. So, if you weren’t using Chrome, I strongly recommend you use Chrome. Some folks might feel an aversion to using AdBlock (many sites make their money from the advertisements), so I won’t necessarily give a full-throated endorsement of AdBlock. However, I’d at least recommend trying it out and seeing if you like that experience.
If for some reason you don’t want to give up your Firefox experience, there is a version of AdBlock for Firefox, too.
Jeremiah Stanghini 