Roll Your Own Ad-Blocker

You can roll your own ad-blocker with just a plain text file. Tech site MVPs.org introduces the idea of a host file. The file is plain text and contains a long list of web addresses that are blocked. Gina introduced this type of file a while back. However, rather than using it to block web sites that waste time, the file is filled with web hosts that are commonly used to feed ads. Whenever you visit a web site that throws an advertisement at you, it will appear as a “server not found” error. It’s definitely not the prettiest way to block ads, and you can use an extension like Ad Block Plus to accomplish the same thing. However, if you’d like a little more control, and a cross-browser method of blocking ads, try rolling your own ad-blocker.