Google has launched an ad-blocker for its Chrome web browser that is designed to prevent “annoying” and “intrusive” ads being shown to users.<\/p>\n
Google announced the move to curtail full-page and auto-playing video ads, among others, last year.<\/p>\n
The choice of which ads to block will be determined by the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA) – made up of companies including Google and Facebook.<\/p>\n
Sites will have 30 days to remove disruptive ads before blocking begins.<\/p>\n
A survey of 40,000 US and European web users found that the most intrusive ads were full-page ads that hide the content of a web page and flashing animated ads, according to a blog by Chris Bentzel at Google.<\/p>\n
“Chrome will automatically block ads on sites that fail the Better Ads Standards,” wrote Bentzel.<\/p>\n
“When at least one network request has been blocked, Chrome will show the user a message indicating that ad blocking has occurred as well as an option to disable this setting…..”<\/p>\n
The ad industry was generally accepting of the move, said Emily Tan, an editor at Campaign magazine.<\/p>\n
“At first, people were worried that it would be implementing ad-blocking across the board,” she told the BBC.<\/p>\n
“Now everyone has a clearer picture of what it does.”<\/p>\n
Block party<\/strong><\/p>\n Sites that have already altered the ads they show after being warned by Google include the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n However, users who simply want to block as many ads as possible may seek other solutions.<\/p>\n Rival firm Adblock Plus has analysed how effective a CBA ad-detection tool can be, in terms of its ability to block ads described in a CBA white paper published last year.<\/p>\n The analysis found that the CBA blocker failed to prevent ads that re-positioned article text on a web page while users were reading it, for example to make way for auto-playing video ads.<\/p>\n “In total, the new CBA-endorsed ad skimmer will only block 16.4 percent of the ad types listed in its white paper ” said a spokeswoman for Adblock Plus.<\/p>\n She added that Adblock Plus blocks 92.7% of ads by comparison.<\/p>\n The Chrome browser is in use on approximately 60% of computers and mobile devices, according to statistics from Stat Counter, W3Counter and Net Applications.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Google has launched an ad-blocker for its Chrome web browser that is designed to prevent “annoying” and “intrusive” ads being shown to users. Google announced the move to curtail full-page and auto-playing video ads, among others, last year. The choice of which ads to block will be determined by the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":401610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n