I thought I was so clever, but now I'm eating Chrome...

October 21, 2011 11:50 AM

Why did my Google Chrome stop blocking websites?

Hi there hive mind -
I'm a hired hand on a content farm. All day long I pitchfork information into the gaping maw of the Internet for money.

One of the ingenious tools that helps me to do this efficiently is the "block website" feature on Google Chrome, which allows me to avoid exactly the sort of thing that I myself am writing. Over the months I have digitally X-ed out hundreds of websites so I can quickly grab references that are reasonably authoritative without having to comb through the vast, waving chaff-fields of Ask.com, Yahoo answers, etc etc etc, most of which are useless.

Now the sad part. Yesterday, the dam burst. Reams of exiled information came pouring forth upon me, soaking me to the skin with unwanted how-tos from uneducated adolescents. I have no idea why this happened.

Previously, when I searched something on Google Chrome, there was a little line in each search result that said "block this website". All that was needed was a simple, painless little click and I was forever freed from that particular inanity. Following this horrifying, semi-Freudian return of the repressed, these comforting lines are nowhere to be found.

So. I am awash in a cyber-Nietzscheian eternal return. The sheen of Google Chrome has been tarnished. Help me to claw my way back to my own enforced ignorance, re-repress unwanted websites, and polish up the floodgates of Google Chrome so I can once again admire myself in the hubcaps of happiness.

Thank you!

posted by crazylegs to computers & internet (5 answers total)

Google updated the Personal Blocklist extension to work with https://google.com sites (note the 's'). Chrome automatically disabled the extension because it was expanding the URLs it works on. It should have asked you to re-enable it with its expanded access. You just need to go to [wrench icon] --> Extensions and re-enable Personal Blocklist.
posted by misterbrandt at 11:59 AM on October 21, 2011

The blocking program now needs to access more of your data and won't do it without your permission.
posted by Obscure Reference at 11:59 AM on October 21, 2011

(or visit chrome://extensions/)
posted by misterbrandt at 12:00 PM on October 21, 2011

There's also a native implementation of this feature: Blocked Sites.
posted by ringu0 at 12:02 PM on October 21, 2011

Thanks misterbrandt, it worked perfectly.

I love metafilter!
posted by crazylegs at 12:06 PM on October 21, 2011