How to block popups and ads in Google Chrome

Update: Google Chrome now has an extension called Adblock, which blocks ads. Download Ad block to block advertisements on Chrome.

Google Chrome has been interesting since its release, and many users have switched full time to it. However, many of the switchers have come back to Firefox because of the lack of one crucial feature: ad blocking. Google Chrome does not have a good ad / popup blocker, nor does it allow extensions (so that you could block ads as in AdBlock for Firefox).

However, default installations of a proxy, named Privoxy, blocks ads from coming through. We will be using it to block ads – it will also likely work with other browsers. Privoxy is available for most platforms – including versions of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

1. Download and install Privoxy, a free proxy software.
2. Click on the Setttings (Wrench) icon in Chrome in the upper right corner.
3. Go to Options > Under The Hood > Change Proxy Settings.
4. Within the Internet Properties dialog box, under Connections tab, click on LAN settings button.
5. Check off “Proxy settings” and in the address setting add 127.0.0.1 and in the port 8118.
6. Click “OK,” close Chrome and restart it.

Some text ads will still appear after using this, but text ads are relatively less distracting (not to mention harder to block!). Perhaps the most useful part of this hack is that other browsers can also be configured to use Privoxy (and hence block ads and popups), so you will have ad blocking whichever browser you use.