__A__d-filtering software has been done before, but never this well. Previous filterware personified the antimarketing passion of its authors. Suspected HTML huckstering was stripped mercilessly from the incoming datastream, leaving crumbled pages onscreen. But interMute 1.1, a new release from one-man Internet Mute, is far more elegant. Probable ad images are not downloaded, but their space can be blocked out to preserve the designer's layout. Users can even opt to view the low-bandwidth ALT text. As a proud producer of both ads and ad-supported Web sites, I use interMute to proof page layouts without the ads in place.
This isn't just filtering software, though. It's an all-around bandwidth saver, with a user-friendly set of Web-page menus that allow custom sorting for a slew of pipe-clogging content types, from JavaScript to background music. interMute can also block the privacy invasion of cookies and referrer information. Filtering is customizable by site and can be toggled on and off in a hurry. Barry Jaspan, the MIT graduate and Internet security consultant who says he developed interMute to get rid of "annoyances" that interrupted his work, also maintains a robust Unix version of the program on his Web site.
Web surfers may say they hate ads, but it's usually wasted time that upsets them. Tedious Java tickers and gratuitous GIF animations can tie up a computer in the middle of a deadline-driven data hunt. interMute provides orderly, personalized filtering of these bandwidth busters as needed. It's also one of the most reliable Windows Java applications I've used. Maybe Jaspan should give up security consulting to train the rest of us in programming.
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