REVIEW: SafariBlock

   Even while I had updated to Mac OS X, I still used iCab as my main browser for some time. The main reason behind this was iCab's unparalleled ability to filter out ads. These ads could even range from the common ad images to even ad Java apps. No other browser could match this feat. Except until Firefox rolled around.

Firefox in itself didn't offer this nice feature, but an extension to it did. This extension was cleverly named AdBlock. For this reason alone, I even prepared to start using Firefox as my main means of viewing the internet. A quick search, though, found that someone else liked this ability to block ads and prefered to use Safari.

This is when I came upon the wonderful piece of hack-work that is SafariBlock. The author of this great creation was inspired by Firefox's AdBlock extension and wished to give Safari the same power.

After installing it and restarting Safari, I was now able block images by their url. In many ways this is quite similar to iCab's ability to block ads; of course, it comes no where near the full abilities of iCab's filter manager. But the usage of the (*) character made the trasition of my settings from iCab very easy. I already had a long list of ad servers ready.

The change was immediatly noticeable. I visited a few sites to check out its effect and there was nothing where ads used to reside. Nothing. Nada. Ha ha. I'm not finished though. These ADs are a wiley bunch. You can never let your guard down. Hell, they've started to find ways through many a browser's anti-pop-up defences.

When you use this, feel no guilt. There will be people who say that poor websites need their ads to make money. Boo hoo. I don't click on 'em and they only hurt my eyes. How are they making money off of that? Do they enjoy hurting me or something? If you are looking for software like this, then the advertisers aren't making money off of you anyway. Go for it. Enjoy a partially more ad free internet then ever before...