Google Chrome's built-in ad blocker to roll out worldwide on July 9
Google announced today that Chrome's built-in ad blocker would roll out to users worldwide starting July 9, this year.
Security
Currently, Chrome's ad blocker is only active for Chrome users in the US, Canada, and Europe, after it was initially rolled out in an initial stage in February 2018.
Chrome's built-in ad blocker isn't an ad blocker in the classical meaning of the term. It doesn't block all ads, but only ads on sites that feature intrusive adverts that have a negative impact on users' internet browsing experience.
The ads that Google considers to be intrusive are defined in the Better Ads Standards, which are a set of standards for online ads that was put together by the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group dedicated to improving the web advertising experience.
The Better Ads Standards were chosen based on the feedback of over 66,000 users around the world. Today, the Better Ads Standards lists 12 ad experiences that are considered to have a negative impact.
There are four negative ad types on desktop (pop-up ads, auto-playing video ads with sound, prestitial ads with countdown, large sticky ads) and eight on mobile (pop-up ads, prestitial ads, ad density higher than 30 percent, flashing animated ads, auto-playing video ads with sound, postitial ads with countdown, full-screen scrollover ads, large sticky ads).
Starting with July 9 this year, Chrome will not load any ads --at all-- on websites that run one of these intrusive ad types.
Website owners can check if their sites use ads that break the Better Ads Standards using a special dashboard named the Ad Experience Report, where they can also request removal from Google's ad block backlist when they remediated any issues with intrusive ads.
This shouldn't be something new for website owners, as many have already corrected sites since late 2017 when Google first announced Chrome's built-in ad blocker rollout for North America and Europe.
"In the U.S., Canada, and Europe, website owners have successfully been able to make changes to the ads on their sites. As of January 1, 2019, two thirds of all publishers who were at one time non-compliant to the Better Ads Standards are now in good standing," said Ben Galbraith, Senior Director of Product for Google Chrome.
"Further, out of millions of sites we've reviewed to date, less than 1% have had their ads filtered," Galbraith added.
As Google has stated many times before, Chrome's built-in ad blocker aims to strike a balance between all-blocking ad blockers that hurt revenue for websites offering free content, and abusive sites that bombard users with intrusive ads without providing any meaningful content.
Top Google Chrome extensions (2019 edition)
More browser coverage:
- How to enable and test the new Google Chrome dark mode on Windows 10
- Google working on blocking Back button hijacking in Chrome
- Google Chrome flaw patched three years after initial report
- Brave browser moves to Chromium codebase, now supports Chrome extensions
- Firefox has a secret porn filter
- Google Chrome's new UI is ugly, and people are very angry
- Brave is the default browser on obscure HTC crypto-phone CNET
- How to use Opera's Flow to sync your desktop and mobile browsers TechRepublic