34 Replies Some useful add-ons for Firefox 
| Posted by neoshark, 8/24/09 10:06 AM - Permalink Secure Login - automatically logs in on websites if the user data is already saved in Firefox Password Manager by using a button or key. Similar to Opera's "Wand login". AutoCopy - automatically copies marked text. Video DownloadHelper - download videos from YouTube, MySpace and similar video embedded sites. GooglePreview - displays thumbnails from the sites you search for on Google. Quote: Originally Posted by komodo I strongly oppose this add-on. It may make your browsing a bit more enjoyable on a selfish level... but it hurts the sites you visit. Sure, it's easy to not care about mega-sites run by multi-million dollar corporations where your impact is below negligible, however what about the thousands of small sites you visit everyday that depend on that advertising revenue to keep their site online? Desktop Nexus is a very expensive site to run because the large wallpaper downloads cause very steep bandwidth bills. Our site is 100% paid for by advertising, and anyone who visits Desktop Nexus using AdBlock Plus costs us money. In my opinion these users are just leeches. Some people might speak up and say "oh, but I added your site to my whitelist to support you", and while that's appreciated, I still feel for the thousands of other sites you visit that are not whitelisted. And if you go around whitelisting every site you enjoy, at what point does that add-on become meaningless and you'd be better off without it at all? Another fallacious point people bring up is "ads will give me viruses". While I'm sure this is true from time to time, most major ad networks (Google Adsense, Tribal Fusion, etc.) are extremely careful about the advertisements they show, and any malicious ads are quickly removed. The entire basis of a company as large as Google depends on the integrity of their advertisements, so you can be assured they do everything in their power to maintain a trustworthy reputation. Desktop Nexus only serves ads from top-tier networks like these. I understand how that add-on reached it's monumental popularity, but I do wish people would realize the damage they're doing with it. Adblock Plus is incredibly selfish and hurts the sites that you enjoy. Adblock sure is useful for sites who afloat your screen with adds. For sites like Desktop Nexus there is still a feature to disable blocking with just 2 clicks. Also known as white list. Do you know LayerAds and such kinds of adds? They are totally annoying because they take the whole screen and forces you to stop your surfing through the Internet. No site that uses such adds deserves to be on a white list - no matter how great the service is! Last Edit: 8/24/09 at 10:40 am |
| Posted by larisa, 8/26/09 6:55 PM - Permalink Quote: Originally Posted by komodo Web of Trust (WOT) is great, but I just dislike Adblock. Sorry to sidetrack your thread. Quote: Originally Posted by larisa As a person that doesn't have very much computer experience, would you be so kind to explain to me how the people who place the ads know the difference if it is shown or not? The ad is not loaded from Desktop Nexus, but rather they are just shown ON Desktop Nexus. When someone loads a page on DN, it sends a request to the advertiser's server for an ad. Their server gets the request, logs it, and sends the ad to be shown to the user. At the end of each day/month, the advertiser (or ad network) count up all the ad requests, and you get paid for those. Firefox add-ons like Adblock Plus scan the page for ads, and block the request that is sent to their server. This way, the ad is never requested, so it's never sent to the user's browser, and never logged on their end to pay. The advertiser never knows that user existed. Did I explain that very well? Yes, you explained it very well, thank you, and I must say, that the small space the adds take up here on this website should not pose a problem for anyone at all because it isn't as if they show up as pop-ups or are intrusively large. When I first heard about the Adblock, I gave it a try but it still left behind the coding for the ad, not to mention that it slowed the page's load just because it seemed to confuse the messages being sent/received. Now, I find it rather amusing how a page can pick up on keywords in that page and find an ad for it. I have even read some interesting things upon occasion from some ads. |
| Posted by VickyM62, 8/28/09 1:38 PM - Permalink @MrUnknown: You also need EasyList to complete AdBlock Plus, or it won't work like it used to. Go find EasyList and click on "Add to ABP", then it will work properly. |
| Posted by MrUnknown, 9/9/09 11:22 PM - Permalink Quote: Originally Posted by VickyM62 @MrUnknown: You also need EasyList to complete AdBlock Plus, or it won't work like it used to. Go find EasyList and click on "Add to ABP", then it will work properly. Yup, but when you first launch ABP it asks you which list you would like to subscribe to. Or go to Preferences > Filters > Add Filter Subscription. MrUnknown |
| Posted by Starcannon, 9/15/09 1:26 PM - Permalink I agree with your stance Komodo, sadly a substantial portion of advertisers are neither tasteful or respectful; with popups, and obnoxious audio, flash ads that suck down slower and older computers, cookies, trackers, and a host of other unscrupulous practices, Ad-Block is about the only solution; and unfortunately Ad-Block does not seem to differentiate between ethical advertising practices, and unethical advertising practices. There must be a solution to the problem, but everything I've ever thought through always comes up with holes that the un-ethical would abuse. I have been thinking of putting google adsense on my site, but have not bothered because I doubt seriously that anyone will see the ads to begin with. |
| Posted by Marsille, 9/22/09 10:40 AM - Permalink Quote: Originally Posted by komodo Quote: Originally Posted by MrUnknown Adblock Plus - will keep annoying advertising out of your site; allows custom removal of ads as well. Enjoy surfing without ads  I strongly oppose this add-on. It may make your browsing a bit more enjoyable on a selfish level... but it hurts the sites you visit. Sure, it's easy to not care about mega-sites run by multi-million dollar corporations where your impact is below negligible, however what about the thousands of small sites you visit everyday that depend on that advertising revenue to keep their site online? Desktop Nexus is a very expensive site to run because the large wallpaper downloads cause very steep bandwidth bills. Our site is 100% paid for by advertising, and anyone who visits Desktop Nexus using AdBlock Plus costs us money. In my opinion these users are just leeches. Some people might speak up and say "oh, but I added your site to my whitelist to support you", and while that's appreciated, I still feel for the thousands of other sites you visit that are not whitelisted. And if you go around whitelisting every site you enjoy, at what point does that add-on become meaningless and you'd be better off without it at all? Another fallacious point people bring up is "ads will give me viruses". While I'm sure this is true from time to time, most major ad networks (Google Adsense, Tribal Fusion, etc.) are extremely careful about the advertisements they show, and any malicious ads are quickly removed. The entire basis of a company as large as Google depends on the integrity of their advertisements, so you can be assured they do everything in their power to maintain a trustworthy reputation. Desktop Nexus only serves ads from top-tier networks like these. I understand how that add-on reached it's monumental popularity, but I do wish people would realize the damage they're doing with it. Adblock Plus is incredibly selfish and hurts the sites that you enjoy. I agree completely. It's easy to ignore ads. |
| Posted by VickyM62, 9/22/09 10:58 AM - Permalink @HuxleyStronghead: There are a ton of themes to make Firefox look almost exactly like Chrome on Mozilla's addons site. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=chromifox&cat=allAs far as Chrome is concerned, it's lack of addon support prevents me from using it often. Especially it's lack of support for WOT or the McAfee site advisor addons. I find it INSANE to surf the web without WOT. Also, Opera 10 is faster than Chrome, Chrome is no longer the speediest browser that it used to be, but you also need Privoxy to block ads. http://www.privoxy.org/I also still stand strongly for ad-blockers. If you have people, especially kids, using your computer, they're needed to prevent them from going "Oooooh, I think I'll click on this shiny, flashing........virus". I understand Komodo's stance as well, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, especially with my niece and nephew dropping by a couple of times a year. Last Edit: 9/22/09 at 10:59 am |
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