Does your browser slow down when loading web pages with lots of little graphics that you don't want?
Maybe the web site owner thinks that the "guest map", the "web ring logo", and the "traffic counter" are all cool features.
Those toys are usually implemented by making the web page load an extra graphic image every time you view the page. The images usually reside on slow, heavily loaded servers, and, in the case of the counter, the image has to be generated anew for every user!
What to do? Get some ad-blocking software, and use it to block these graphic images as well as the advertising banners and popups that such programs normally block.
The blocker program will contain a list of advertising URLs (or URL patterns). Before you install a program, make sure it lets you add your own choices to the list.
Then you can make your own list of URL patterns representing unwanted images. Save it in a file on your system. Add those patterns to the "block" list, and the ad-blocker should now start to make the web-counters, "Blogger" logos, and other junk disappear from the pages you view, just as it makes ads disappear.
If you're in my position, acting as a system administrator, and able to install system-wide web proxy software with an ad blocker (such as "adzap" to accompany "squid"), you can do a favor for your users! Of course, give the people a choice: some of them may prefer to keep the ads.
The speed-up you get as a web user may be amazing!
