One of the biggest reasons most Windows users are sticking with Firefox over Google Chrome is its extensibility—and the most popular Firefox extension by far among Lifehacker readers is Adblock Plus. If annoying web site advertisements are the only thing holding you back from using Chrome, a user at the Geekzone forums explains how to block 'em without an extension. In short, you use the free Privoxy web proxy software, which blocks web sites serving ads, and configure Google Chrome to use the proxy. Here's how to do it.

Download and install Privoxy Click on the Wrench icon in Chrome in the upper right corner. Choose options>Under The Hood>Change proxy settings. In the Internet Properties dialog's Connections tab, click on the LAN settings button. Check off "Proxy settings" and in the address setting add 127.0.0.1 and in the port 8118. If you have the option, you can also check off "Bypass proxy for local settings". Click "OK," close Chrome and restart it.

Privoxy's default installation blocks ads from coming through it, so from there you'll notice ad-free web pages. After I installed Privoxy I got an error going to Gmail, but a refresh fixed the problem. However, I'm still seeing Google text ads in Gmail at least. Have you given Privoxy a try for ad blocking? Let us know how it went in the comments. Thanks, xint!


Adblock for Chrome [Geekzone]