You like surfing the web, but you are constantly interrupted by pop-ups even before you started reading what interests you? Google’s solution was to give Chrome the ability to block all websites with unwanted ads such as autoplay videos with sound, or full-page banner ads.
The idea is very simple: if users don’t have to hassle with the annoying ads, there’s less chance they will install adblockers. These programs are harbingers of revenue for websites that live from advertising, and at the same time they show lesser numbers of page openings on Google’s browser, which pays services such as Adblock Plus to treat their ads as appropriate. Google’s global internet advertising business is bigger than that of its five direct competitors combined, and Chrome has 59.23 percent market share as an internet browser on desktop and mobile (source: NetMarketshare.com).
And how will this filter policy be implemented? Chrome has identified 12 ad types (ie, banners, ads with a timer that counts the time before a user can access the website, an ad that automatically plays video with sound, ads appearing in front of the webpage, blinking animated ads, etc.) that will trigger a blocking system based on the standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads, one of whose Board members is Google, and whose goal is to identify the ads that are most disruptive for users. Among others, the board members in this initiative are giants such P&G, Unilever, Facebook, Reuters, Washington Post, and American, European and worldwide advertising associations.
Opinions about Google’s influence are rather unanimous. Some members of the Coalition’s Management Board have told the Wall Street Journal that they believe Google has an unjustifiably strong influence on the work of the board because it has led the research that was used to make the decision about identifying intrusive ad types. Pre-roll ads on YouTube, for example, were not included in the survey, and we know that YouTube is owned by Google…
