Obviously, I wouldn't suggest readers abstain from the display adverts that pay for the whole ZDNet enterprise, but help is at hand for those who use Adblock in Firefox, and want something similar 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.