Google’s ad-filter for Chrome is a joint effort between Google and the Coalition for Better Ads, a new report today states. Earlier this week it was reported that Google would be inserting an ad-blocking feature into Chrome and that Google had been working on it for a little while. Further information today expands on that upcoming feature and sheds light on one important detail that wasn’t necessarily as clear when the feature was first rumored to be in the works – It’s not really an ad-blocker. To be more specific, it’s now reported to be less of an ad-blocker and more of an ad-filter, as suggested by the Coalition for Better Ads’ Randall Rothenberg. That being said, Rothenberg doesn’t go into much more detail than that in terms of what it is, just that it’s not an ad-blocker.
To add more to it, this new filter that Chrome will be featuring at some point with a future browser update is being set apart from traditional ad-blockers that most people are used to. Although this was sort of touched on before, there is now more confirmation from Rothenberg and the new report that ad-blockers such as Ad-Block Plus are far from what Google is doing with their filter and that Google and the Coalition for Better Ads is trying to distance their product from the norm. Google’s filter will not be blocking just about every ad, as most ad-block tools and apps are meant to do unless those ads are whitelisted. Instead, the new filter will be meant to prevent certain ads from showing on screen that the Coalition decides would pose a bad experience for users.
While this could come across as a move from Google to help their own ads show up more often than competing advertisers, it’s being said that Google will be holding its own ads from YouTube, Search, and other areas to the same regulations as any other ad, but when it comes to settling on which ads are deemed appropriate and which ads are not, nothing is yet finalized and any headway in terms of completion is still “months away,” which could mean that Chrome won’t have this filter enabled until much later this year. The Coalition for Better Ads includes more than just Google, with Rothenberg citing Facebook as well as some of the industry’s largest advertisers, media companies, and marketers as being part of the group.