The world’s notable search engine, Google, says it has begun to block annoying ads on its Chrome browser, as part of its move to improve the online advertising ecosystem that provides the bulk of its revenues. The new ad filtering system rolled out this week aims at eliminating the most irritating marketing messages such as pop-ups, auto-play video ads and “sticky” boxes which cannot be removed.
The system is being implemented by Google in partnership with the Coalition for Better Ads, an association which includes the internet giant and a number of media and advertising partners.
Google engineering manager, Chris Bentzel, said in a blog post on Tuesday, “While most advertising on the web is respectful of user experience, over the years we have increasingly heard from our users that some advertising can be particularly intrusive. Chrome will tackle this issue by removing ads from sites that do not follow the Better Ads Standards.”
Although Google’s effort will checkmate only a small percentage of ads, it is aimed at countering a growing movement to install third-party ad blockers which filter all such advertisements and could be a threat to firms relying on online revenues.
The overall aim was further expatiated by Google Vice-President, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury. In his words, “To us, your experience on the web is a higher priority than the money that these annoying ads may generate, even for us”. In a blog post, he explained, “The web is an ecosystem composed of consumers, content producers, hosting providers, advertisers, web designers, and many others. It’s important that we work to maintain a balance – and if left unchecked, disruptive ads have the potential to derail the entire system.”
This tends to show that Google is eager to pre-empt a consumer revolt capable of adversely affecting revenues to internet, media and advertising companies.
In turn, the Coalition for Better Ads enthused that it “is pleased by the large number of companies in the online ad industry that have embraced the Better Ads Standards and taken action on their own and with their business partners to discontinue the ad formats consumers find most annoying and disruptive.”
