Google announced that it is enabling the built-in ad blocker for Chrome starting February 15th. The ad filtering feature is designed to weed out “disruptive” ads that “often stand in the way of people using their browsers for their intended purpose,” Google said in a blog post. Full page ads, ads with auto-playing sound and video, and flashing ads will be targeted by Chrome’s ad filtering.
The guidelines that will dictate what gets blocked and what doesn’t will be in line with the Better Ads Standards set up by the Coalition for Better Ads, which Google Chrome joined last year.
The guidelines are expected to be in sync with the Better Ads Standards set up by the Coalition for Better Ads, which Google Chrome joined last year.
How will it work?
On desktops, Google is planning to block pop-up ads, large sticky ads, auto-play video ads with sound, and ads that appear on a site with a countdown blocking you before the content loads. Ad blocking on mobile will be even more strict, filtering out pop-up ads, ads that are displayed before content loads (even ones without a countdown), auto-play video ads with sound, large sticky ads, flashing animated ads, fullscreen scroll over ads, and ads that are particularly dense.
Google will first evaluate the sites based on the Better Ads standards, then inform the site owners of any issues and then allow sites to correct the problem in 30 days before blocking the ads. Once ads are blocked in Chrome they’ll be filtered at the network level to prevent them from loading at all.
Site owners can access these evaluations from Google using an automated tool (an API to be specific), and sites can be re-reviewed after bad ads have been addressed.
The ad block icon will show up in Chrome’s address bar on the desktop (similar to the pop-up blocker icon), and on mobile, a prompt at the bottom of the screen will appear showing that ads are blocked on a site. Both desktop and mobile users will have the option to whitelist ads on a site that’s automatically blocked.
