Adblock has been *the* plugin for me from the day i started using Firefox. Since then blocking ads has been childs play for me and the people to whom i have introduced it to.
In the Adblock settings (Tools --> Adblock --> Preferences) i noticed that one can export the filters i have gathered so far. For those who havent used Adblock so far, a filter is like a rule that adblock can be taught to use while blocking ads. An example would be '*/banners/*' - this is like telling adblock to block all the images in the current page that fit the pattern /banner/. Simple right?
Anyway, i exported my settings into a text file on my disk and realized that it looks like this:
[Adblock]
*.bcst.yahoo.com/*
*.falkag.net/*
*.maxserving.com/*
*.pointroll.com
(and so on ....)
Wondering what filters others were implementing - i googled for it (keyword: filetype:txt [Adblock]). I found around 294 files. All i needed to do was download and add *all* of them to a single text file. I also weeded out some duplicates (copy-paste it into excel, sort it and remove the duplicates and copy-paste it back into your text file). Remember to make sure that you have only one [Adblock] on top of this file.
I fired up Adblock preferences, cleared my existing filters (Addblock options --> Remove all filters) and then imported my new set (Adblock options --> Import Filters --> Select our filters file). To test it, i visited some sites notorious for floating ads, popups, banners and what not.
The verdict? I found it was quite effective! Give it a shot and let me know if it worked for you as well ;)
See also: Adblock Plus