Over six months ago, Google launched the Adsense Publisher Toolbar, a browser-based extension that enabled publishers to monitor their earnings and performance directly on their own website pages.

31,000 Adsense publishers now use the Chrome extension, but thanks to a few recent improvements, you can (should) expect that number to skyrocket.

The toolbar, which consequently now supports DoubleClick for publishers, has received new blocking capabilities that are definitely worthy of note. Publishers that have the extension enabled will be able to block ads they deem unsuitable for their audience without needing to navigate to their account or spending time determining which ad or URL to block. Publishers can even indicate to Google if there was a problem with an ad – e.g. the ad in unsafe, the landing page is unaccurate, etc.

Previously, publishers were only able to view account. Now, those ad overlays display additional information about the ad unit including the name of the ad slot, performance metrics, destination and display URLs, as well as a preview of the ad. And, if publishers are using the Ad Review Center, they can now take action on either the ad or the URL, choosing to block the ad directly which adds it to the URL filter list.