In a blog post yesterday, Google clearly and carefully outlined their plan for blocking overly aggressive adverts on the web. At first blush, it would seem odd that Google, a company who primarily makes their money from adverts, would block ads. Further, it would seem self serving as the types of adverts they want to block in Chrome, they themselves don’t serve up so only their ads would get through the blocker. That’s not entirely true.
As a site owner who depends on adverts and as a consumer, I’m quite happy with this announcement and planned implementation in 2018.
The short of it is this: In Google Chrome, starting in 2018, overly intrusive adverts are going to be blocked by the browser. As Google described them, “it’s far too common that people encounter annoying, intrusive ads on the web–like the kind that blare music unexpectedly, or force you to wait 10 seconds before you can see the content on the page. These frustrating experiences can lead some people to block all ads–taking a big toll on the content creators, journalists, web developers and videographers who depend on ads to fund their content creation.”
We all know examples of sites that use these types of ads and as a consumer, I hate them. I never block the ads but I just don’t go to those sites any more. And that hurts me in getting the information I want or need and ultimately, it hurts the site as they don’t get revenue from their ads.
If you are reading this post in Chrome or any other browser, you know that I have adverts here on ClintonFitch.com. They help
Google Chrome for Android
pay the bills and your clicks are always appreciated. But I have consciously and carefully selected the ads that I display on the site. I have no pop-up ads. I don’t like them and I’m not going to subject you to them (although they pay really good in most cases). Instead, I’m dependent on you clicking an advert when you want to click one. I’m not putting you in a situation where you have to click to read the content.
And that, ultimately, is what Google is driving towards with this change in Chrome. I, for one, am glad it is going to happen.
Google is providing plenty of warning and time for sites to change their adverts and are providing guides on what will be acceptable and what won’t come 2018. It’s up to site owners to make the changes.
