Google Chrome Now Has Resource-Blocking Adblock

MackieChan writes "It seems to have slipped under the radar, but Google Chrome now has resource-blocking abilities, and may have had the ability for some time. Using the 'beforeload' event on the document, an extension can now intercept resources from loading. Adblock for Chrome has already added it, and I expect the other 'ad-blocking' extensions have as well. Before you start praising Google, however, it's the WebKit team that deserves your credit; one Chromium developer responded to praise by stating '... thank Apple — they added it to WebKit, we just inherited it.' Firefox vs. Chrome just got a bit more exciting."

Comments

Still not as good as what Firefox has

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't catch every single resource -- ad blocking plugins for Chrome admit that it won't catch everything and still has to just hide some ads. And it's not nearly powerful enough for NoScript to work.

So there is still no Firefox vs. Chrome/Chromium. Firefox still leads, big time, because of this issue.

I'm rooting for Chrome/Chromium/Webkit to get proper blocking abilities, because it's great otherwise. But until they can do what's necessary to get true blocking, I won't use it.

Still waiting for...

[Lord Bitman]

Is everyone ever going to make an adblock-alike which, rather than "blocking" ads, just prioritizes them differently so I don't need to wait for fifty ads to load before I can view actual page content? I really don't mind ads. I'm okay with them. I don't want to block them, and I think people who do block them are assholes. But I don't want to wait for them.

Re:Uh, not really

[hairyfeet]

Do you still have to use some behind the curve hacked version to keep all your data from being sent to Google? Because Google's data mining and installing "updaters" that refuse to uninstall with the app made it a non starter for me. Does it have an easy way to allow some scripts but not others? A FEBE style backup? Imagezoom? Something like iMacros that makes automating the things I do trivial? A downloadhelper that will put videos in folder a and executables in folder b?

While Chrome has the buzz right now, too many things like data mining made me uncomfortable with it. And FF is simple enough with its extension framework that even my 67 year old clueless dad has his FF customized. I know everyone talks about its JavaScript engine, but seeing how many "malware o' the day" uses JavaScript I'd prefer NOT to load a bunch of unapproved JavaScript really fast, thanks anyway. And side by side I really can tell a difference anyway, as both load a page as fast as I can click. So while I wish anything that isn't IE the best of luck, for me and my customers it'll be FF for the foreseeable future.

Re:Most of Google's revenue is advertising.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I am not anti-ads, I am anti-eyesore and anti-slow-flash-crap.

Well said. I wish there is a way I can state my own ad preferences so that the web sites know what kind of ads I will accept. Like browser sends a string that says, "Will accept text ads, static image ads. No animation, no flash ads, so sound, no pop-ups or pop-unders. Currently in the market for: Digital camera, scuba vacation, college visits"

I want only the obnoxious advertisers to go out of business. I want to provide a carrot for the sites that are willing to play nice.