***Update Sept 2009 ***
Re-released Mark8t’s Adblock for Google Chrome via Extension

So it has finally happened, Google has begun to open the ability for extensions to be added to Google Chrome (although it is limited in scope). We have been playing around with the documentation  since reading Matt Cutt’s post the other day. On our first project, we decided to modify our earlier Adblock code. Now it can be installed in Google Chrome automatically. It’s now a set and forget application. If you’re interested in upgrading to it, we’ll explain how(trust us, it’s easy as pie).  Then we will show you how to start making your own extensions (or at least where to start). One quick note, you need to have a recent developer build or Google Chrome 2.0 beta. So let’s start.

First, to be enable the support for extensions, you will need to  edit the target field of the shortcut field you use to launch Google Chrome. To do this, right-click on the shortcut, select “Properties” and add to the target field the following information :  --enable-extensions --load-extension="c:\extension"

What this does, is allow Google Chrome to know where your extensions will be loaded. Now you actually need to create that folder on your C drive.  Do  that by adding a new  folder and naming it  “extension”.  Next download this*(see note below–this is a new version) file, it is the Adblock script.  Unzip and drop the files into “the extension” folder. That’s it. The next time you open Google Chrome all ads will be blocked–even defeating current Adblocking blocking scripts. You can verify the load properly  by typing chrome-ui://extensions/ into the Chrome address bar. To disable you will need to delete the files from the extension folder.

Just so you know there are two files needed for every extension

The first is something called manifest.json , it will look like the below:

• format_version (required): Tells Chrome which version of the manifest format to use. Right now there is only one version, and it is version 1. (NOTE: Maybe we should just remove this, we can always add a format_version key later if needed).
• id (required): A unique ID for the extension. Right now, this can be any 40 digit hexadecimal number, but in the future it will be a SHA-1 hash of the extension’s public key.
• version (required): Is the extension’s version. You can use any number of dot-separated numbers for the version.
• name (required): A human-readable name for the extension. (NOTE: In the future all these human-readable texts will have to be internationalized).
• description (optional): An optional longer description of the extension.

Content Scripts is the next portion. A content script are JavaScript files that run in the context of web pages the browser loads.

You can read the rest of details here, but remember it’s still early in the development. There will be a more developed .CRX extension file formats for Chrome, and an ability to have more than one extension loaded at a time. In short, there is still much work to do. Furthermore, as time goes on the documentation will change, but the benefit of being involved early will help you get a jump start on competition. Good luck on the tweaking!

As an extra, this is our “fun” script. You can load this over the files current adblock one. See what happens when you visit Google.com with it installed. There are tons of possibilities with this…Let your imagination go…

***Note about Mark8t’s Adblock***

I know some may find it funny that an e-marketing blog  has an Adblock Script. It’s not an oxymoron. We know its a matter of time before an Adblock for Chrome is created (and so it has been), so we might as well be there first to find creative ways around it (hence our “fun” script). We support smart marketing, where annoying pop-up and distracting ads are not part of a website. That’s what this blog and our company is about. And we also know reality from our studies. Those who are comfortable enough to implement this solution will not typically be the people who click ads. Nevertheless, we must warn you, installing this script is a nuclear bomb. There is no off switch unless you delete the files. You are also depriving many sites of revenue when you use it. Please use this only as a starting point for your own development and maybe someone (or we) can work out an easy way to enable/disable the script without folder deletion to turn it off.

***Update October 2009***
Re-released Mark8t’s Adblock for Google Chrome via Extension