Blocking Internet Ads & More

I'm Fred Fishkin with Bootcamp, a report on computers and technology. They make the web faster, blocking animated graphics and ad banners and let you select which sites can track your movement on them using what are called cookies. WRQ, which has been known for it's corporate, high-end software, has a new consumer product called @Guard. WRQ's Craig Schmidt...

"What it's doing in the performance category is it will block advertisements, banners and animated GIFs off the Internet. And so, as such, it reduces networking traffic coming to your PC, which allows your PC's performance to increase substantially."

It also lets you block access to or from your PC to specific sites. The price is under thirty dollars and you can dowload a free trial version from atguard.com. A company called Internet Mute has a similar program on the market. Intermute, which you can try for free at intermute.com,blocks ads, animated graphics and selective cookies as well. A lot of web sites depend upon advertising to stay in business. But Intermute's Barry Jaspan argues...

"There are VCRs out there that will fast forward past commercials on videotape and yet obviously, lots of television stations are making plenty of money selling advertising time. So, it seems unlikely, even if I and other people that are doing software like this are phenomenally successful that we're going to put the Internet out of business."

Some companies on the web may not agree.