Ad Blocking

uBlock Origin

UPDATES:

1. I now use and recommend uBlock Origin.
2. Firefox (Nightly) now supports uBlock Origin on mobile.

Ads on the Web not only are often annoying and performance degrading, but also can seriously compromise your privacy (by tracking you) and security (as an attack mechanism for malware).

Apologists for ads claim they finance the "free" Web and that some ads are better than others, but those claims are greatly exaggerated, since the Web has many different financing mechanisms including service fees paid by users, and since it doesn't make sense to risk compromising performance, privacy and security.

The best way to deal with ads is to use a blocking extension in the Web brower (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, or Safari).

• The best ad blocking extension (as of this writing) is uBlock, available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
• If you must use Internet Explorer (not recommended), Adblock Plus is a good alternative, but be sure to configure it to block all ads. (So-called "unobtrusive" ads are not blocked by default.)
• Blocking extensions don't work well on mobile, where ads can be even more of a problem due to data consumption, but Adblock Browser can be used instead of the native browser (Chrome or Safari) to do the job.

Ad blocking extensions won't stop malware on your device from serving ads, so it's also a good idea to scan your device for malware. See Anti-Malware for Windows.