More FireFox Extension Fun
I was linked via Sitzmar to a new FireFox extension called Rip. It’s functionality is somewhat similar to AdBlock in that it allows you to remove content from a page via filters. That threw me at first, and I kind of dismissed it at first. After taking another look, the similarity ends there.
Rip is cool in that it borrows a page from GreaseMonkey and allows you to set up filters so that the criteria will only apply to sites that match said filters. The intelligence behind how it chooses what to remove is all based on XPath, something that I hadn’t seen actually put to use until tonight.
The actual implementation seems pretty quick, there is a little bit of a “hitch” once the page loads and it kicks in but nothing too extreme. The CPU spike isn’t awful, but I could see it proving to be slightly annoying to have your computer bog down for a second if you opened lots of tabs that Rip needed to deal with.
The default set of “Rips” installed with the application is pretty good, it covers ads on sites like SlashDot, VCD Quality, and Wired. I’m not sure how well-suited to adblocking Rip really is, since a good set of AdBlock filters will cover most ads you could ever encounter. Rip would definitely be more time-intensive were you to use it as your only adblocking mechanism.
Fortunately, Rip and AdBlock appear to play nicely together. So I can use Rip to remove stuff like an entire navigation column I don’t need, and AdBlock to take care of any ads that may be scattered around. Combine that with GreaseMonkey to fix some annoying websites (HotMail, I’m looking at you) and it’s a pretty potent combination.
I like being a FireFox user, I get to play with neat stuff.
March 5th, 2005 Comments Off
