Open Sauce Software
Tasty titbits from people using Linux and other open source software in business.
Wednesday 3 September 2008, 5:43 PM
How to block adverts in Chrome!
Adblock users have asked Adblock creator Wladimir Palant to make an Adblock for Chrome - but there's a problem. Chrome isn't extendible.
It doesn't have an API for extentions, the way Firefox does.
Also, since Google's raison d'etre is serving ads, the company isn't likely to make it a priority to allow users to block ads. Indeed, a Cnet colleague, Ina Fried, has pored over the Ts and Cs, and thinks Google might be planning to actually deliver ads in the browser, not in the content (not a likely thing right now, but keep your eyes open).
There's an online community that wants to build its own Adblock-like plug in, using Gears.
But there is a way to block ads now. It's more fiddly than adding an extension, but Privoxy is a web proxy that runs locally and filters ads.
I'd nearly forgotten about Privoxy - I used to use it when ads were playing hell with my old dial-up connection, and from what I remember, it's good (and many thanks to TechnoBabel for reminding me of it.


