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If you have 10 minutes to spare, I can promise you a better browsing experience.
First, download Firefox. If you haven’t done so already, do it now — it will only take a few minutes. And even if you already have, now is a good time to get the latest version (1.0.2). Just click on the “Free Download” link, let it start downlaoding in the background, and continue reading.
Second, once Firefox is installed, pick up the Adblock Plugin. Adblock does an absolutely brilliant job of stopping the garbage that fills up the net, including the sketchy stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Just click on the Dev Builds link, and scroll down until you see the “Installs for all versions of mozilla and firefox” option. Or, for simplicity, use this link to the current Adblock 0.5 Plugin. (If you see a yellow bar across the top of your browser that reads “To protect your comptuer, Firefox prevented this site (adblock.mozdev.org) from installing software on your computer”, that’s okay. Click “Edit Options”, then “Allow”, then “Okay”, then try again.) Now let the installer run and restart Firefox. Notice the “Adblock” link in the bottom right-hand corner of your browser window.
Third, to save yourself the trouble of training Adblock you can download an excellent pre-made filter list. Go to Pierceive’s nightly Adblock directory and download the latest filter file. (Today’s version is called 2005-03-26a.txt.) Now use the “Tools” menu in Firefox, scroll down to the “Adblock” entry, and choose “Preferences.” Now click on “Adblock Options”, and select “Import Filters”. Find the filter file you just downloaded (something like “2005-03-26a.txt”). Click “Okay” to overwrite your old filters.
Adblock should now be enabled. Surf around for a while and marvel at how nice the web is. Note that Adblock is not just hiding ads — it is stopping them from being downloaded in the first place, saving you time and annoyance. Plus, all of the little tracking scripts and tracking icons will also be blocked, so you can rest easier knowing that people aren’t following your surfing habits behind your back.
If you are ever curious as to what a page is doing, just click on the “Adblock” button in the bottom right of your browser. It will show all of the scripts and images that the page includes. Be particularly skeptical of media that comes from a different site than the one you are on — most of those are serving ads or javascripts. And, if you ever see something on a page that you don’t like, just right click on it, find the Adblock menu, and get rid of it forever.