best practices: firefox + adblock + noscript

I've been a long time fan of AdBlock Plus, but until recently I haven't discovered the true power of another Firefox add-on - NoScript. The magic with this one is that the little Serpent removes all the JunkScript (err, JavaScript) from the page your are visiting, unless told otherwise. Thing that will break lots of sites in this web2.0+ world, but brings a bit more safety to your browsing.

There's also a helper add-on for AdBlock, which is Adblock Filterset.G Updater and handles the task of feeding up-to-date filters to it; What filters? (Internet) Ad removal filters, you'll see the sites as never seen before! :-)

Side comments:

• if you enable NoScript, don't forget to allow Google Analytics or other trusted visitor tracking engines outhere (be fair towards the webmasters)
• FireFox 3 Beta seems to be (a bit) more faster than FF2 and the support for 3rd party add-ons is growing; just take it for a ride if your time allows it
  
• hey, you have commercials/ads on this page! What?! I don't see any... do you still see them? :-)
  

why should you use Gmail

Sometimes I'm sort of an evangelist for Gmail, nagging (some of) my friends to switch from Hotmail or Yahoo!Mail, if for some unknown reason they are still using these. But, why should you do it? (the switch)

Lets make a short(?) list but let me drop the hammer first:

• when one of the Yahoo GURUs is actively using Gmail and has a dormant Yahoo!Mail account, what do I have to say more? Maybe that...
• the Gmail SPAM filters are way better (than Yahoo's/others, except SpamCop)
• Gmail can/will import your Outlook meeting requests directly in Google Calendar, which in turn can be configured to send/buzz you a free SMS in advance of the meeting
• you have free POP3/IMAP/forwarding option
• no annoying signatures added by default to your emails!
• you can play/listen to your MP3s attachments directly within Gmail
• attached pictures display better in Gmail
• searching emails is... so simple and fast, soo... Google :-)
• last, but not least: you can always import your Yahoo/Hotmail/whatever emails with help from YPOPs! or FreePOPs
• you can even host your own domain with Google Apps to benefit from all these
  

Yep, you can use this link in your arguments, I will use it for sure :-)


Later update: oops, remember the initial hammer? Lets rise it once more: a fresh study by Hitwise in the USA reveals that the users of Yahoo services tend to be younger and poorer than the people using Google services. Noticed via TechCrunch