Firefox extensions, part one: adblock

As I mentioned on the Mozilla part of my website, I am starting an - almost - daily post series on Firefox extensions. I already mentioned the impressive international language support, without the need to download language packs, in a prior post. I had thought about writing about tabbed browsing next, but that is being fairly well covered in any number of articles online just now, so I decided to mention my three absolutely "must have" extensions first.

No 1 of those is Adblock. In combination with Firefox' excellent in built pop up stopper it has made my life as ad-free as I would have believe it impossible to be until I got it. It can be installed directly from the Mozilla Update page as well as the adblock details. Simply clicking the install link will bring up the extension manager - more about that soon - which after a 3 second delay - to prevent the reflexive hitting of the "yes" button - all to install the extension (or allow to cancel installation at any time).

As with any newly installed extension, it becomes available after Firefox is restarted, then it shows in the lower right corner of the status bar. Clicking it will bring up a pop up window listing all blockable items in the currently view page while a red dotted line frame will highlight any item selected from that list makes it easy for the viewer to see what part of the page he is dealing with. To remove any item from view, just clicking okay adds it to the ban list. (To remove any mistakenly added item from the list go to Navigation Bar > Tools > Extensions > Adblock > options to select that item and remove it from the list.) Additonally, bans can also be set by right clicking inside the webpage, and chosing "adblock image" from the right click menu.

Best of all, bans can not only be set for individual pictures, but for scripts, iframes and even complete urls as well, by using * as a wildcard in the ban url. And life has further been made easier by some kind souls who have already precompiled blocking lists such as the one below (I have to admit I forgot where I got it, if anyone who reads this knows, please add a comment to let me know, so I can give that person credit - also, if you know of additional list, please equally post a comment.) All you need to do it copy it as it is, then safe as adblock.txt file and import through the same Navigation Bar > Tools > Extensions > Adblock > options process.

Below the list for anyone who'd like to use it:
[Adblock]
*.ad-*
*.ad.*
*/ad.*
*/ad/*
*/adbot.*
*/adc_*
*/adclient.*
*/adcouncil/*
*/adframe.*
*/adgifs/*
*/adgraph/*
*/adimages/*
*/adinfo*
*/adlog.*
*/adlog/*
*/adrotator.*
*.ads-*
*.ads.*
*/ads.*
*/ads/*
*/advert*
*/adview.*
*/housead/*
*/liveads/*
*/phpads/*
*/softad/*
*/sponsor/*
*/sponsors/*
*/tj_bs
*/tracker/*
*_ad_*
*_borders/*
*_superad*
*a.p.f.qz.*
*a.r.tv.*
*a.tribalfusion.*
*-ad.cgi*
*ad_type*
*adbot*
*adclick*
*adclix*
*adclub*
*adcycle*
*adflight*
*ad-flow*
*adimage*
*adknowledge*
*adlink*
*admaximize*
*admex*
*admonitor*
*adpulse*
*adrunner*
*ads/*
*adserv*
*adsoftware*
*adswap*
*af.lygo.*/*
*aureate*
*avenuea*
*banner*
*bilbo.counted.*
*bluestreak.*
*burstmedia*
*burstnet*
*clickxchange*
*counter*.bravenet.*
*doubleclick*
*focalink*
*hitbox*
*hitexchange*
*hitlist*
*hitsites*
*houseads_*
*i.imdb*
*i.us.rmi.yahoo.*
*imaginemedia*
*linkads*
*linkexchange*
*linkshare*
*linksynergy*
*media.fastclick*
*paycounter*
*radiate*
*realtracker.*
*secure.webconnect*
*servedby.advertising.*
*spinbox.versiontracker.*
*spylog*
*thecounter*
*trafic.ro/*
*us.a1.yimg.*
*us.f.yahoofs.*
*valueclick*
*view.atdmt*
*adtomi.*
*.linkbuddies.*
*.qksrv.*
*x.mycity.*
*z.about.*
*zdmcirc*