[mp3geek]

Host files are very limited, and when you start dealing with anti-adblock scripts and other css/js scripts on some sites it falls apart. Basically hosts file was great 10+ years ago when the Web was new(ish) and Adblock was only used by a few. Now we're dealing with CSS, objects, subrequests, first party ad/tracking scripts.

With all the features Adblock Plus gives us, far far more than just blocking xx and yy domains like in a hosts file... Why not just use the extension? Let's leave the host file to the history books.

[userbinator]

ABP is filtering content that's already been retrieved over the network and read into the browser. With hosts, the blocked content never makes it into my machine, which saves bandwidth.

I think using both is better than either one alone. A hosts file to quickly remove most of the unwanted stuff, and ABP to finish off the rest that does get through.

[gorhill]

Regarding ABP, there are two kind of filters, the net request filters and the DOM content filters.

The net request filters do prevent net requests from being made.

[throwaway7767]

I thought that was only the chrome version, since google does not want to implement features to allow adblockers to stop requests.

Firefox does support it, and I know that in the past adblock did stop the requests rather than hide elements.

[Rusky]

Chrome has added an API to block requests: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/webRequest

[nitrogen]

Are you sure that the requests are still made?