Google Plans Ad-Blocking Feature In Popular Chrome Browser

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Link: Google Plans Ad-Blocking Feature in Popular Chrome Browser [The Wall Street Journal]

 

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is planning to introduce an ad-blocking feature in the mobile and desktop versions of its popular Chrome web browser, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.

 

The ad-blocking feature, which could be switched on by default within Chrome, would filter out certain online ad types deemed to provide bad experiences for users as they move around the web.

 

Google could announce the feature within weeks, but it is still ironing out specific details and still could decide not to move ahead with the plan, the people said.

 

Unacceptable ad types would be those recently defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group that released a list of ad standards in March. According to those standards, ad formats such as pop-ups, auto-playing video ads with sound and “prestitial” ads with countdown timers are deemed to be “beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability.”

 

In one possible application Google is considering, it may choose to block all advertising that appears on sites with offending ads, instead of the individual offending ads themselves. In other words, site owners may be required to ensure all of their ads meet the standards, or could see all advertising across their sites blocked in Chrome.

 

Google declined to comment...

[Arthur]

I wonder how many more websites will sign up to Google Contributor v2.0 before Chrome starts blocking ads early next year?

 

Link: https://contributor.google.com

 

Google launches Funding Choices, a way for users to pay sites to hide ads

 

The new site for Google Contributor/Funding Choices is live, and offers some new insight into how the service actually works. According to the signup page, each page without ads that you view on a site costs a small amount, with publishers apparently able to change the price (most of them seem to use $0.01 per page right now).

 

So assuming $0.01 per page, $1 gets you 100 pages without ads, and Google is offering a £5 / $5 pass to start out with. Not bad pricing at all, as long as sites stay around the $0.01 price point.

 

Google also offers a list of sites supporting Google Contributor, which currently includes Beliefnet, Business Insider UK, ComicBook, Eurogamer, Grub Street, Hot Air, Parkers, Patheos, Popular Mechanics, Townhall, Twitchy, and World Wide Gaming.

Edited June 4, 2017 by Arthur