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Google's Chrome browser gets do-not-track feature

A new Chrome extension will let Web users who have opted out of online ads avoid having to use tracking cookies to maintain those preferences.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit
Google's new Chrome extension stores opt-out settings that users have placed with two ad-industry organizations.
Google's new Chrome extension stores opt-out settings that users have placed with two ad-industry organizations. Google

Google just released a new extension for its Chrome browser that will make it easier to avoid ads on the Web.

"Keep My Opt-Outs" stores the settings that users lodge with ad industry opt-out programs like the Network Advertising Initiative and the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising in one place, ensuring you don't have to rely on cookies to track those preferences. It's a nod to the Do Not Track movement that has been gaining a little steam, which Google acknowledged in a blog post announcing the extension.

"A better "Do Not Track" mechanism is a browser extension that means you can easily opt out of personalized advertising from all participating ad networks only once and store that setting permanently," wrote Sean Harvey and Rajas Moonka, product managers at Google. The extension can be downloaded here.

Mozilla also today released a proposal for allowing Firefox users to avoid ads, or at least ads placed by companies that would agree to Mozilla's ideas.