June 2 (UPI) — Google confirmed plans to introduce an ad-block tool on its new Chrome browser sometime next year that will block offending ads from appearing in desktop and mobile Web searches.
The Internet search engine giant describes the feature as an ad “filter” rather than a “block” — similar to current Chrome software that warns users of harmful software known as malware.
The new setting won’t allow ads from appearing on websites that are deemed to provide a bad advertising experience for users. Smaller sites often rely on lower-quality ads the most.
But Google plans to give publishers a six-month head start for the new tool to be introduced as part of its Chrome browser.
It will provide a self-service tool — Ad Experience Reports — to alert publishers of offending ads on their sites and tell them how to fix the problem. A publisher’s site will receive a score and will learn which ads are “annoying experiences.”
Unacceptable ads by the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group that includes trade bodies and online advertising-related companies, include pop-ups, auto-playing video ads with sound and “prestitial” ads that count down before content appears.
Google is a member of the group, as well as Facebook.
“We’ve all known for a while that the ad experience is a real problem, and that it’s confused and angered users,” Sridhar Ramaswamy, senior vice president of ads and commerce at Google, told Ad Age. “We realized solutions like ad blockers punish everybody, including publishers who develop great content and are thoughtful about the ad experience they put on their site.”
Google’s idea is a way to encourage Chrome users to turn off existing software that blocks all ads, CNBC reported.
Online advertising revenue accounted for 88 percent of the $90 billion in revenue last year for parent Alphabet Inc.
