Ad-blocking officially coming to Chrome in 2018

GOOGLE’S TAKING A STAND AGAINST ‘INTRUSIVE’ ADS.

Google has announced it will automatically block ads on some websites in Chrome, despite many media business models relying on display ads to keep them afloat. According to Google’s senior vice president Sridhar Ramaswamy, the move is designed to eradicate “annoying, intrusive ads”, rather than all forms of display advertising. When the functionality is introduced next year, the company will collaborate with ‘The Coalition for Better Ads’ in order to stamp out ads on “websites that are not compliant with the Better Ads Standards”. Types of ads included in this non-compliant category include pop-up ads, autoplaying video ads and large sticky ads (i.e. ones that cannot be clicked away). On mobile, non-compliance will mean ads that take up more than 30% of the screen and flashing animated ads, as well as auto-playing video and audio ads. Google is making efforts to help publishers on the road to compliance, though there’s only six months to implement the changes.