Google will start killing ads it deems annoying starting today, using its very own Chrome browser, and it seems like quite a few critics arrived at Google’s doorstep because of such move, some of which we’ll talk about in this article. Before we start, however, it is worth noting that Google first started talking about this back in June, and as part of such a move, the company will start blocking all ads, including its own, on offending sites. So, essentially, if Google deems that an ad is not behaving, and deteriorating the experience considerably, it will be gone.
It’s easy to figure out why is Google doing this, the company is clearly trying to get people to turn off their ad blockers, which are eating away the company’s income, as well as ads income from various sites who use ads in order to stay in business, like our own, for example. That is at least part of it, as critics are convinced that this is more an assertion of dominance, rather than anything else. Google will focus this new initiative on 12 ad formats which are criticized by the Coalition for Better Ads. Google, Facebook, News Corp. and the News Media Alliance (which represents 2,000 newspapers in the US and Canada) are a part of that coalition, by the way. Now, offensive formats include pop-up ads, large ads that hover above the page, and ads that flash with bright background colors, says the source. Paul Boyle, senior vice president of public policy for the newspaper alliance, says that Google is running the standard into de facto law.
Now, critics also point out that Google omitted one of its most significant forms of advertising from this initiative, pre-roll video ads, which most of you have probably already seen on YouTube, as they play before YouTube videos. Truth be said, Scott Spencer, Google’s Director of Product Management, did say that the company is looking into pre-roll ads as well, and that they will have more info once ‘the research is complete’. Google will phase in ad restrictions over the next couple of months, and it’s worth noting that dispute will not be handled by the Mountain View giant, but by the coalition. Those of you who are using Chrome, will see a notification when Chrome blocks such ads, and will still be able to see them if you opt to do so.
“Who’s to say what’s a good ad and what’s a bad ad?”, asked Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble Inc., which is a platform somewhat similar to YouTube. Mr. Pavlovski is clearly not happy with Google’s approach to this. Sean Blanchfield, the CEO of PageFair, said the following: “Publishers are beginning to feel like they’re playing in a gig economy operated by Google.” So, it’s clear that not everyone is optimistic regarding Google’s latest move, so it remains to be seen how will this impact both users and publishers alike.