Adblock Plus blocks advertisements. It's not the only tool that does so; there are dozens of 'content-filtering' tools around. The reason for highlighting Adblock Plus is that it's the Mercedes Benz in the world of ad-blocking, and a prime example of people power.

It doesn't really need explaining that advertising on the internet is more often than not annoying and invasive. Less frequently discussed is the fact that online advertising can be completely unsuitable. I don't think, for instance, you'll be impressed if your children are presented with adverts for porn websites while looking for torrents (and all those other things kids are attracted to). Online marketeers couldn't care less; as long as they get paid heaps of money they'll serve any ads, and they'll do so in a way that makes it impossible to ignore them. Hence all the pop-up windows and animated banners.

Adblock Plus puts users back in control by allowing them to block unwanted ads. The aim, according to Wladimir Palant, the project's lead developer, isn't to “destroy the advertising industry” (An approach to fair ad blocking, 11 May 2009). Rather, the aim is to find a balance between the interests of advertisers and users.

Obviously, there's a link with junk mail here. Stop Junk Mail isn't about killing unsolicited mail; the campaign is simply about putting people in control of what comes through the letterbox. The great thing about Adblock Plus is that it enforces the principle that users - and not advertisers - make the final decision. On Planet Junk Mail such a principle exists in theory only.

Installing Adblock Plus is relatively straightforward. The main thing to be aware of is that the extension is currently available for only three web browsers: Firefox, Chrome, and K-Meleon. Adblock Plus isn't available for Internet Explorer, and for good reasons. If you're reading this using Internet Explorer you'll first need to install Firefox before installing Adblock Plus.

There are two ways to install Adblock Plus in Firefox. The first is to choose Tools, Add-ons from the menu bar; this takes you to a page where you can install any available Firefox extension. There are lots of them, but Adblock Plus shouldn't be too difficult to find; search for 'Adblock Plus' and you'll quickly end up on this page where you can can click on a bright green 'Add to Firefox' button.

Alternatively, you can browse to adblockplus.org and click on the install button there. On the Adblock Plus home page you'll also find a video showing you what to do after clicking the install button. The whole process takes about a minute of your time.

Filters

It's important to be aware that out of the box Adblock Plus doesn't do anything. When you install the extension you're asked to choose a 'filter'. Don't skip this step - if you do Adblock Plus won't block a single ad. Luckily, the process has been made as straightforward as it can get. If you're mostly browsing English language website the default filter, EasyList, works fine.

In case you're wondering, a filter is a set of instructions about what content should be blocked ('filtered'). When your browser opens a web page Adblock Plus uses the filter(s) you've chosen to check if the page wants to load content that should be blocked. The neat thing about this is that unwanted ads will never be downloaded. You'll find that Adblock Plus makes browsing faster; adverts usually take a bit of time to load. (If you take another look at the screen shot of the above-mention page on the Guardian / Observer website you can see in the bottom left corner that ads were still being downloaded when the screen shot was taken.)

Options

Once you got Adblock Plus installed you'll see the red Adblock Plus logo either in the Firefox navigation toolbar (at the top) or Add-on toolbar (at the bottom). It's worth clicking on the down arrow next to the logo; this gives you a number of useful options. For instance, at any time you can select 'Open blockable items'. This will show a menu with all items on the page that you can block if you so wish. Just about anything can be blocked, including images and videos.

Another interesting option is 'Disable on…'. As mentioned, Adblock Plus aims to give you control about how much advertising you get to see on the world wide web. It's aim is not to kill advertising. There's been lots of debate about whether or not blocking advertisements is ethical, and there's some (though only 'some') consensus that people should be encouraged to enable advertisements on websites they visit frequently. 'Disable on…' gives you this option. You can disable Adblock Plus for individual pages or whole domains.

At any time you can change and/or add filters. There are some really interesting options here. For instance, if you go the website of the default filter, easylist.adblockplus.org, you'll see you can add a filter called EasyPrivacy that will prevent marketeers track what pages you visit online. There are plenty of other filters available, as well as an intriguing discussion about whether or not 'adult' websites should be filtered by EasyList.

Personally, I prefer the lists created by Fanboy. From the homepage at fanboy.co.nz you can add three filters to Adblock Plus; the default Fanboy Adblock list (which is much like EasyList), an anti-tracking list (like EasyPrivacy), and an 'annoyances' list. The latter is great if you want to get rid off 'Share on Facebook / Twitter / Reddit etc. buttons. If you take another look at the screen shots of the Guardian / Observer website you'll notice that the Facebook, Twitter and Reddit buttons have magically disappeared in the second example. That's Fanboy's annoyance list at work; the default EasyList or Fanboy Adblock lists will not block such items.

It's not recommended to use the filters produced by EasyList and Fanboy at the same time. If you're going to add Fanboy's filters you'll want to disable EasyList, and visa versa. To do so, click on the down arrow next to the Adblock Plus logo and choose 'Preferences…'. Disabling a filter is as easy as unchecking a check box:

As per usual, you can customise everything. Should you wish, you can block 'Share on Twitter' links but allow 'Share on Facebook' buttons. Expand the 'fanboy-annoyances' filter menu (by clicking on the arrow to the left) and you'll see the hundreds of items the filter blocks by default. Scroll down and you'll see they're neatly categorised; all the Facebook stuff comes under the header 'Facebook Widgets'. To allow specific items you can uncheck the box to the right of the item:

• Adblock Plus
• EasyList filters
• Fanboy filters