At the suggestion of another BLF member, several months ago — I downloaded Ghostery, a tracking blocking free program. I am absolutely astounded that when I load some pages on the internet, 63 or so tracking links pop-up in the blocking counter on Ghostery. You should try it just to see the amount of parasites there are following you around the internet, totally shocking …
Just use a HOSTS file and none of those places will see you. And if for some reason they do, just add them to the HOSTS file.
EDIT: Fixed the link—sorry about that.
for some reason above link would not work for me.
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
I don’t know if it has improved but a long time ago I tried the hosts method of ad-blocking and it slowed my computer to a crawl (the file was at least 1MB, which is a lot for plain text).
Ghostery is a great browser extension/add-on. I switched to Disconnect for a while but I prefer the interface of Ghostery.
It should actually make your computer much faster because you will have a dramatic drop in the number of outgoing connections. Now, some much older versions of Windows like Win98 had a crappy TCP/IP stack, but any modern version will see a speedup.
There is one caveat for Windows 8, though. To use a HOSTS file with Windows 8 you will need to disable Windows Defender. Because apparently some viruses were co-opting the HOSTS file so Defender now doesn’t let you modify it. I’m not sure I buy that BS because Microsoft makes lots of money from ads and tracking, and I would not use an AV product that didn’t allow for a custom HOSTS.
If you use Ghostery, you will need to ‘ALLOW’ the google AJAX search API block, to keep the search bar.
Use Peerblock instead of this Windows shoddy tweak.
Ghostery is useful but you need many other add-ons to avoid invisible tracking and even so the add-ons themselves sell your datas. If you want to go extreme there is Tor. https://www.torproject.org/
What about smart phones? What’s the best app to use in blocking unwanted sites for androids/ smart phones?
I’m running Disconnect, Adblock plus, Avast online Security, Quick JavaScript switcher, window name eraser, WOT, HTTPS Everywhere, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Avast free, Comodo firewall, EMET and the tight Chrome settings.
Peerblock get’s it’s list from that windows shoddy tweak, many of the “adblock” and spybuster’s get them from that one site…
@NB95 - I use adaway from f-droid. It modifies the hosts file.
Slow-down problems with HOSTS files with more than a few entries could be a problem unless one disabled dns client service. My HOSTS file has 667K entries and is 23MB in size and causes no slow downs.
Easiest way with HOSTS files these days is use HostsMan it will even automatically update the file with new entries from the various databases.
Thanx HBomb! I’ll give it a try. 
Just remember that TOR is is not suitable for anonymizing regular browsing. It makes the source of the data anonymous, but exposes all the data you send/receive to other people. So don’t use any personal stuff like facebook, email, or anything that requires your name, username or password through it.
I think my Paypal is knowing my every move…
Thanks a lot, I just installed Ghostery and it’s awesome!
So ? Its more than idiot to completely blocks whole IPs and will cause lots of internet problems.
And what is completely anonymous ? Nothing. The OS,programs are full of vulnerabilities/backdoors and your ISP can see what you do. Using a proxy or VPN is like delivering your data on a plate to a foreign company. Using anonymous tools just make you harder to track.
If you have something to hide then you must a plotting terrorist !
What I ment was that the TOR exit nodes have total control over the data you use through it, and anyone can easily create TOR exit node.
So if you transmit/download wrong kind of data through TOR, the malicious exit nodes can steal your passwords, identify you, or just insert trojan into a program you download through it. Here’s related article of Swedish researcher who was analyzing TOR traffic and got access to embassy email accounts of Iran, India, Japan, Russia… I think their admin’s didn’t quite understand what the TOR is used for… 
So TOR is good for accessing internet anonymously, but don’t send any data trough it that you would not want to become public knowledge.
SeaMonkey v2.25 now supports Ghostery. Thanks OP for the heads up.
Who is Tracking Your Every Move?
the answer is the NSA…
also ontopic, with the plugin lightbeam for firefox you can see which website is tracking you…