Remove Google Ads on Opera

The following instructions are for the Opera browser. You may be able to use a similar approach with your browser, since the idea is pretty easy. Create a user stylesheet just for Google to not display the ads.

Why Remove the Google Ads?

Why I you want to remove Google Sponsored Adverts? Personally, I have found that the ad only occasionally goes to what I really want, and the real results usually go just where I want to go. I also have my hosts file to not even let me go there, so why would I want to see them anyway? Even with the hosts file blocking the link, I can still right click and Go To URL.

Use CSS to Remove Google Ads

The method is very easy. Create a user stylesheet, and then edit site preferences, and use that stylesheet in the Display tab. Here's mine or download the CSS file.

#tads, #rhs_block {
	background-color:#c0c0c0!important;
	color: gray!important;
	display:none;
}

If you still want to see the ads, but want them to be greyed out, just remove the display:none on line 4.

How To Find the IDs of the Google Ads

Thanks to Opera Dragonfly, finding the sponsored ads is easy. Just start Dragonfly up, click on the area you want to see, and it will be revealed. To start Dragonfly, go to Menu -> Page -> Developer Tools -> Dragonfly.
Dragonfly will open up at the bottom of your screen, unless you have it set to open in a new window.
Take your pointing device and click on the part of the page whose markup you would like to see.
Dragonfly will show the markup in the left pane, and the CSS in the right pane. Look for the id - when I went looking, it was tads for the top sponsored ad, and rhs_block for the right sponsored ad. Yours might be different, so just make a note of it.
If you have a stylesheet editor, you could fire that up now, or just open any plain text editor you have available. Do not attempt to do this with Word. Use the ids you noted down in step 4 and apply the styling you wish, then save the file somewhere convenient on your computer.
Switch back to Opera, and close Dragonfly.
Right click on the page ( make sure you are still using Google Search Results ), and choose Edit Site Preferences.
Go to the Display Tab and browse for the stylesheet you just saved. Mine is shown below.
Close the box, refresh the screen, and Bob's your uncle!