Are you tired of seeing that "How To Get Rid Of Belly Fat" ad that has been all over the internet lately? Or any other online advertisement for that matter? Some are annoying, but some are rather inappropriate, as well. Hey, I have some good news for you. You can get rid of them. The answer is... Firefox!

I'm not even sure what percentage of surfers use Firefox. I personally used Internet Explorer for a long time, just because that was all I had. It worked. Why switch? But a while ago I finally decided to see what was so good about Firefox, and I've been glad I did ever since. Let me tell you, it is sooooo much better than IE. You would have to try it to see what I mean.

For one thing, Firefox is supposed to be a safer browser, as far as threats to your computer goes. But it also has some really cool features -- you have one bar for the URL and one bar for searching the internet. But it's not just for one search engine. Each time you type in a search term, you can select a site you want to search. Google is included, of course, but there's also Wikipedia, Amazon, Yahoo, Answers.com, Ebay, and Creative Commons. You can also download more search engines for the drop-down list, such as a dictionary.

There's also the feature to search for a specific link in your favorites (or bookmarks, as they're called in Firefox). Of course, you may have a very organized list of bookmarks. But you might have a very unorganized list that is about a mile long (like my mom's) and never know where the link is for one specific site that you saved three months ago. Imagine typing in part of the website name in the bookmarks search bar and having it pop right up for you!

I could go on... but I was going to tell you how to block the ads, wasn't I? Well, first off, you will need to download Firefox if you haven't already. I won't go into all that here, but you can download it from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/, and then if you want, you can import your favorites from IE and start using Firefox as your default browser. It's pretty easy, and if you get happen to get stuck, just go to the link above and click on Support. Your question should be answered there.

If you already have Firefox, blocking the ads is a pretty simple process. Here's what you do:

1. Click Tools --> Add-ons.
2. Click on the tab at the top that says "Get Add-ons".
3. There will be a list of a few add-ons you can get for Firefox. Don't get distracted at this point -- you can come back and look for them later. Type "Adblock" in the search bar at the top and hit enter.
4. You want to select the one that says "Adblock Plus." It has a red stop sign icon next to it.
5. Click on Add to Firefox, or if you want to learn more, click on Learn More.
6. A box will pop up, asking you if you are sure you want to install the add-on. Go ahead and click on install.
7. Next you will be notified that you must restart Firefox for the installation to be complete. You can do this manually, or you can click Restart Firefox and it will try to restore your open tabs for you when it re-opens. I'm telling you, this is so easy. Nearly everything is explained on-screen for you.
8. When Firefox starts up again, you should see a page with a gray background asking you if you want to subscribe to a filter subscription. Do not skip this step. If you do not subscribe to a filter subscription you will have to filter the ads out manually, and unless you know exactly what you're doing, Adblock Plus won't do you much good. Go ahead and select the top subscription and click the button at the bottom that says "Subscribe".
9. That's it, folks! 99% of all ads on the internet will have totally disappeared! Surf in peace.

Also, you can use Adblock Plus to block specific pictures, as long as the picture has the same URL all the time (and doesn't change each time you load the page, like some banner ads do). Simply right-click on the image and click Adblock Image. Make sure you choose the option that blocks the full URL (it will probably end in .jpg or .gif or .png), otherwise you will end up blocking other images coming from the same server that you still want to see.

If you have any questions or problems, feel free to ask. I'd be glad to help you get this set up!