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I've found that installing Ghostery has vastly improved my web browsing experience. It's not just adverts, though - the amount of pointless javascript on web p

I've found that installing Ghostery has vastly improved my web browsing experience. It's not just adverts, though - the amount of pointless javascript on web pages these days is almost embarassing. The concept of optimizing web pages for quick loading and judder-free browsing seems to be completely lost on today's web designers.

ChrisLTD 11y ago
That's absolutely true. I'd also like to add that there is an explosion in ancillary imagery and video that often measure in megabytes. Do we really need all those parallaxed full-screen background images?
- dorgo 11y ago
  we need way better compression algorithms
  - imgabe 11y ago
    Something with optimal tip-to-tip efficiency
  - jjtheblunt 11y ago
    removed unnecessary unwanted nonsense would, then, compress to 0 bytes...good for all.
- profinger 11y ago
  This!!!!!!! I can't stand these sites!!!!
- JustSomeNobody 11y ago
  No. We don't. We're getting to here: https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/idiocracy.jpg?w=1224 https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/idiocra...
Raphmedia 11y ago
This. Corporation will push you content from their sever, including agressive advertisements. It's (sadly) up to the user to filter them on his browser, on the front-end. I manually disable my ad blockers on websites I choose as appropriate. The minute one of those website use an agressive ad that covers the content or a popup, it goes back on the blacklist.
profinger 11y ago
Yeah people only want to make their sites flashy and fancy. It's crap. Half of the time the content is hidden behind some stupid fancy animation or modal window.
peloton 11y ago
I've heard discussion amongst the adtech crowd that it's "viewability tracking" products that are creating a lot of the slowness we feel today on the web.
BuckRogers 11y ago
I've seen Ghostery mentioned for years and your comment encouraged me to try it out again. Thanks. Also completely agree. I find myself wanting the internet back from before all injecting all this JS became popular. I know that's going to make many JS guys pissy, but it's true. I'd rather see people just rely on simplicity and HTML. The web should be about hyperlinked document sharing and simple data/storage retrieval frontends like github and email. That was the original use-case and shoehorning in more today is clearly just pissing people off. Going too far beyond this with flashy designs kill usability, speed and productivity. I'm frequently having to cut down Google's attempts at messing up my Gmail with constant new JS features. I'd probably prefer just HTML Gmail too (https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=h https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=h) if they'd just do a little touch up work on it such as the ability add contacts. It's not missing much but is so performant and just what I need. My general rule is if you can achieve what you need with just HTML, then stop there. That would probably be fine for 90% of the sites out there like my email and HN.
dublinben 11y ago
uBlock (Origin) achieves similar results with far less resource usage. It's worth taking a look, if you've been using AdBlock or Ghostery for a while.
JustSomeNobody 11y ago
I find it easier to just use Gas Mask to very quickly swap out the hosts file for sites I think abuse their web privileges.
sirtopas 11y ago
Head to The Verge and check out the Ghostery count on that... it's hard to believe they made the decision to load so much on a single visit. That site is beyond awful to load.

ChrisLTD 11y ago

That's absolutely true. I'd also like to add that there is an explosion in ancillary imagery and video that often measure in megabytes. Do we really need all those parallaxed full-screen background images?

dorgo 11y ago
we need way better compression algorithms
- imgabe 11y ago
  Something with optimal tip-to-tip efficiency
- jjtheblunt 11y ago
  removed unnecessary unwanted nonsense would, then, compress to 0 bytes...good for all.
profinger 11y ago
This!!!!!!! I can't stand these sites!!!!
JustSomeNobody 11y ago
No. We don't. We're getting to here: https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/idiocracy.jpg?w=1224 https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/idiocra...

Raphmedia 11y ago

This. Corporation will push you content from their sever, including agressive advertisements. It's (sadly) up to the user to filter them on his browser, on the front-end. I manually disable my ad blockers on websites I choose as appropriate. The minute one of those website use an agressive ad that covers the content or a popup, it goes back on the blacklist.

profinger 11y ago

Yeah people only want to make their sites flashy and fancy. It's crap. Half of the time the content is hidden behind some stupid fancy animation or modal window.

peloton 11y ago

I've heard discussion amongst the adtech crowd that it's "viewability tracking" products that are creating a lot of the slowness we feel today on the web.

BuckRogers 11y ago

I've seen Ghostery mentioned for years and your comment encouraged me to try it out again. Thanks. Also completely agree. I find myself wanting the internet back from before all injecting all this JS became popular. I know that's going to make many JS guys pissy, but it's true. I'd rather see people just rely on simplicity and HTML. The web should be about hyperlinked document sharing and simple data/storage retrieval frontends like github and email. That was the original use-case and shoehorning in more today is clearly just pissing people off. Going too far beyond this with flashy designs kill usability, speed and productivity. I'm frequently having to cut down Google's attempts at messing up my Gmail with constant new JS features. I'd probably prefer just HTML Gmail too (https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=h https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=h) if they'd just do a little touch up work on it such as the ability add contacts. It's not missing much but is so performant and just what I need. My general rule is if you can achieve what you need with just HTML, then stop there. That would probably be fine for 90% of the sites out there like my email and HN.

dublinben 11y ago

uBlock (Origin) achieves similar results with far less resource usage. It's worth taking a look, if you've been using AdBlock or Ghostery for a while.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago

I find it easier to just use Gas Mask to very quickly swap out the hosts file for sites I think abuse their web privileges.

sirtopas 11y ago

Head to The Verge and check out the Ghostery count on that... it's hard to believe they made the decision to load so much on a single visit. That site is beyond awful to load.