garretsw :
Thanks for the advice. I am usually careful with what I click on and download bUT unfortunately I believe this was my fault. I installed a YouTube Downloader from Google store and apparently it gave a lot of people adware. In my opinion that is unacceptable on Google's part but it is what it is. It went unnoticed for a very long time because ad block kept all of its stupid ads from popping up.
Ah, I see what you mean. Yeah, ad blocking can definitely hide some symptoms of various malware/adware, but at least we know it's doing its job!
You might want to write an email to Google, and let them know what happened with your extension. The way those extensions stay in the Chrome Store is if people don't report them, or write reviews explaining what happened. I'd definitely write them, should this ever happen to me. Saves you from accidentally downloading it again, and helps prevent other people from having that happen.
Glad to hear you dodged a bullet though!