A software package a day: AdBlock Plus

I mentioned before that I’m using Privoxy because I prefer Chrome as my primary browser. That said, Firefox remains my second line browser and AdBlock Plus is simply the best ad blocker out there. Recommended. As I said before, I white list sites I want to support (and which don’t provide an alternate revenue model). The reality is there are some sites I use obsessively and only block the most obnoxious advertisements from. A reasonable amount of advertising is a fair trade for use of a site in my book.

Compared to something like Privoxy, the usability is a breeze thanks to blocking being available on the right click menu as well as a useful UI for managing the existing block list. Setting exceptions is easy and the pattern matching rules are sensible wild card rules (such as ".aspx?zoneid=*&task=") which mean precise control over over large blocks. As exceptions override blocks you can ensure your support for a site isn't compromised by overly aggressive blocks.