Now you can do the banning you wish Google would do.

That works about as straightforwardly as you’d expect — once installed, you’ll simply see a link to block a site along with each search result, and you’ll also be able to unblock sites at any time if you go a bit overboard. What’s most interesting, however, is that Google says it’s going to study the feedback it gets from extension and that it will consider using it as a potential ranking signal for its search results.

Two things I appreciate here:

1. Google recognizes that browser extensions are a geek perk, not something with broad-based appeal. I imagine most Firefox users don’t even know extensions exist. And I imagine even fewer people know Google *has* a browser. All this may change in time, but right now it’s not an issue.

2. I will be stunned — jaw-droppingly stunned — if Google clamps down on ad blocker extensions for Chrome. That would be so insanely stupid. Like, Facebook/Beacon stupid.