[Techtalk] two firefox annoyances..

[Tracey C]

And it was said by Dan->
>> If it's mainly ads that slow down page loading, then Adblock is your
>> friend :)

If it hasn't been mentioned already, you can go to the Web Features under
Options (or Preferences) and check "Load images for the originating web
site only". This will prevent a site from loading images from another
site, as most ads are. This sometimes blocks images you want to see, but
you can put individual sites in the exceptions.

> Mozilla (and I presume Firefox) comes with a built-in ad-blocking
> feature that's less powerful but also more intuitive. You can
> right-click on any image and choose "block images from this server".

You can do this in Firefox. However, it has very limited usefulness in my
experience. Sites such as Yahoo code their ads in such a way that if you
block all images from a server that serves ads, you also don't get the
images you want to see. This can mean that images which are necessary for
navigation around the site are not displayed. Besides, with AdBlock,
images are blocked immediately without having to reload the page :)
Finally, native image blocking leaves you with swathes of empty space
where the images would load, AdBlocker takes that away, leaving you with a
much better looking layout.

> (And if the next page loads with no images, you blocked the wrong server
> and you'd better right-click on a non-image and choose "Unblock images
> from this server".)

Unless you run into the situation I describe.
There is an example on http://www.sharkyextreme.com (one of my favorite
hardware info sites). Click on "Weekly CPU Prices - Week of May 23, 2005"
or any article in the middle of the page. Just under the blue bar with the
article title, on the left, is an ad. Image blocking wants to block
sharkeyextreme.com, which would block all useful images on the page as
well. If I use AdBlocker, I can block
"http://www.sharkyextreme.com/RealMedia/ads/*" which only gets rid of that
one image without affecting the rest of the site.

> And if you don't mind continuing on this tangent a little longer, I
> turned off all animated images (which are usually ads)

If they aren't ads, they are just darned distracting and annoying. Good
call. I have Flash installed because there is a minority of content on the
web that is displayed with Flash and that I actually want to see. However,
any website that hampers your experience of it if you *don't* have Flash
deserves to be ignored.

When you tune your browser to your preferences, you can forget what it's
like to surf the web with one of those less capable browsers which doesn't
have great stuff like pop up and image blocking. Whenever I look over the
shoulder of some stubborn person who insists on still using a less
functional browser, I am amazed at what they choose to put up with. It
reminds me of a Carnival of the Evil AdMongers.

-- 
Tracey
Linux Counter #264789