Roger Fingas
Google this week confirmed plans to implement native ad-blocking in its Chrome browser, available for multiple platforms including Apple's iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Beginning early next year, Chrome will halt ads that aren't compliant with standards from a Google-backed industry group called the Coalition for Better Ads, according to the company's senior VP for Ads & Commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy. Some other parties in the Coalition include Facebook, IAB, Unilever, News Corp., Reuters, and The Washington Post.
The Better Ads Standards are directed against tactics often considered annoying, such as long, unskippable interstitials, or ads that suddenly blare sound. By halting these, the hope is that people won't turn to third-party ad-blockers which strip out everything beyond the core content.
The forthcoming Chrome update will even stop any non-compliant ads owned or served by Google, Ramaswamy claimed.
To further support publishers, the company is beta-testing a feature called Funding Choices, which lets websites display a custom message to people using an ad blocker and ask them to either enable ads or pay for an ad-free pass. The option is currently available to sites in Australia, Germany, New Zealand, North America, and the U.K.
It's not yet clear if Google will implement ad-blocking on all Chrome platforms. The company typically implements features across as many platforms as it can, however, which suggests that both iOS and macOS users will see it.
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Wesley Hilliard
Marko Zivkovic
31 Comments
So has Google finally realized that they've gone too far? Today CNN crossed the line with me and served up an ad that took about a minute to load and then started auto playing video with sound on iOS Safari. I'm putting an ad blocker on it. It's been bad enough having to watch a 30 second ad in between each 12 second video content but this was ridiculous.
They'd better block all those flashing, blinking and otherwise animated ads. They're the reason I use Privacy Badger (which gives me more granular control than Adblock does).
You can bet your paycheck that Google’s own ads will never be blocked.
I run an ad blocker simply because way too many sites were serving up advertisements that locked up my browser or did a pop-under that immediately started blaring music.
What I want is more control over how my browser works. If I could completely block the ability of the browser to open new windows and stop the unwanted playback of media files it would negate the need for an ad blocker. CNN is the worst offender. Every last single article on the site is accompanied by a video capture of their anchors reading the story. If I wanted the video I would either turn on the TV or click "Watch Video" on the screen. The unavoidable videos do nothing but duplicate the article, delay loading the text until after the video starts playing, and generally irritate the crap out of me.
I don't mind ads on sites, I understand that is how the content providers make money. However, when the advertisements get obtrusive then I have no choice but to either block them or simply stop visiting the site unless it is one of the few I think are worthy of getting a paid subscription to. Most subscriptions are anywhere from $10/year to $10/month and I subscribe to about 10 different providers that I get the most use out of. Beyond that it is either reasonably ad supported or I'll find a different provider of similar content.
I suppose it's a good start for Google. Ads nowadays have become so obnoxious and intrusive, not to mention severely hampering my browsing experience by sucking up bandwidth that it has just become a never-ending fight between users and advertisers.
I've been using Ghostery for block all that crap. Unfortunately, many websites become broken unless I turn off my ad blocker. It sucks. I realize websites need to generate revenue but there's got to be a better way.