Rick works as a machinist in upstate New York and maintains EasyList in his den. "People
hate ads," he says.
Posted on 06/25/2008 11:04:22 PM PDT by Eagle9
In his free time, 'Rick752' helps millions skip banners and pop-ups. Should a $40 billion industry be scared?
Jumpy, blinking Internet ads really bug "Rick752".
But he doesn't merely avert his gaze.
A machinist and self-described "blue-collar guy" in his mid-50s from upstate New York, Rick752, as he's known online, spends most nights upstairs in his den assembling a list of Internet ad sites and related data. That work, dubbed EasyList, enables millions of Web surfers to filter and freeze out nearly all advertising that would otherwise appear on their screens.
Yet the effort to block millions of Internet ads, while drawing raves from users, is feared by some who say that if it continues to grow in popularity, it could threaten the financial underpinnings of much of the Web, where publishers are largely dependent on advertising. Rick, who said he receives no money for his work, agreed to talk only if his full name was withheld.
"I'm playing against some pretty big players," he said, explaining his reluctance to step forward. "I don't want to be harassed. . . . I don't want to be bribed.
"I started it because I was frustrated with getting my computer infected from ads -- malware and spyware and all that stuff," he said. "I kind of went overboard with it. But you have to admit, it's pretty amazing, right?"
Indeed, EasyList and the free Adblock Plus software it works with may be the most popular and most effective of all the ad blocking systems on the Web. Using EasyList, which is also free, Adblock Plus screens out not just pop-ups, but virtually every other Internet ad form...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I have that and it gets a lot, but not all ads.
I am an admirer and user of his list :-)
Most of this is blocked by Mike’s Host List, which works with any browser, by putting the blocking on the DNS host list in Windows (and many other operating systems.) But I appreciate the story and have added this to my firefox, as well as my favorite, of course, that of NoScript.
bookmark
Rick works as a machinist in upstate New York and maintains EasyList in his den. "People
hate ads," he says.
Adblock Plus 0.7.5.5 (20,729,069 total downloads)
Rick752's EasyList Filter Subscriptions (Free -- 2.8 Million Users)
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