How Do You Make Reading Ad-Filled Web Sites Less Miserable?

Developer Brent Simmons (creator of, among other things, the popular NetNewsWire RSS reader), delivers a compelling rant about the overwhelming state of ads, social media buttons, and other flashing widgets on web sites where the main goal is (presumably) giving people something to read. It's a problem that's been around for a while, and a large crop of tools have surfaced specifically to deal with this. Here's an examination of your best options.

The list is long (consider the length indicative of how widespread the annoyance is).

If your main goal is simple ad blocking, you have:

(Incidentally, you may want to use an ad blocker even if you don't want to block ads.)

If instead you just don't want to be bogged down by distracting Flash ads, you can block Flash with:

If your issue is less about ads and more about all the clutter, then your best bet is to use one of these read-it-later apps or in-browser, reader-friendly tools:

  • Instapaper strips ads and superfluous page content so you can read a distraction-free version of an article in your browser, on your iPhone or iPad, on Kindle, and on various other devices (we like InstaFetch for Android and Windows Phone 7)
  • Read It Later is another similar tool with extensions for Chrome, Firefox, IE, and Safari, and apps for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry. (For a better idea of what separates Instapaper from Read It Later, check out our battle of the bookmark-and-read-later apps
  • Lastly, there's Readability for you browser and iPhone.

My take on ad-blocking and clutter removal—and the approach I think most people take to the matter—is that to the extent that ads and clutter aren't ruining my experience, I'm happy to support the sites I frequent by keeping ads enabled. Unfortunately, unobtrusive advertising is becoming less and less common. Simmons predicts it'll get worse:

I think it was in the Space Merchants (or maybe in The Merchants' War) where this future was predicted: lower-class people would be subjected to a ton of advertising — accompanying every moment awake and asleep — while upper-class people would be insulated.

It seems obvious now, but in the '50s I don't think it was. And now we'd add that it's not a class thing entirely — technical proficiency is part of the equation. If you're technical enough to figure out how to install AdBlock.., you'll cut way down on ads.

Luckily for you, if you're reading this you probably fall into the "technically proficient" crowd. As such, we're curious: What's your preferred method of making ad-filled web sites less miserable? Let's here it in the comments.

The Pummeling Pages Inessential
