AdBlock Plus, an add-on that prevents advertisements from being loaded on web pages, is one of the most popular add-ons for Firefox (Firefox reviews). The non-profit Mozilla Foundation (whose corporate arm, Mozilla Corporation, does profit mainly from advertising) has never tried to thwart the add-on.
For the maker of Chrome (Chrome reviews), Google (Google reviews), advertising is a much more serious business. The company makes billions of dollars in web-based advertising, and it definitely won’t be too happy when AdSweep, an ad-blocking extension for Chrome, becomes widely available.
Yes, this extension has been around for a couple of months, but extensions aren’t yet officially supported by Chrome and there’s no easy way to install it. This will change, as Google has recently opened up an API for third party developers, with plans to start officially supporting extensions soon.
According to LA Times, Google has been ambiguous on the subject so far. Of course, Google Chrome (Google Chrome reviews) has a relatively small chunk of the web browser market (1.42% in April, according to some estimates), and the users that install AdSweep will not be a threat to its revenue. But ultimately, Google’s goal for Chrome is to attain as much market share as possible; if Chrome’s market share rises, AdSweep and similar extensions will become more and more of a problem for Google.more
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