Google Chrome to filter out annoying ads

In a blog on its site entitled Building a better web for everyone, Sridhar Ramaswamy, its senior vice-president, ads & commerce, announced that it would be building an ad filter into Chrome.

“We plan to have Chrome shot showing ads (including those owned or served by Google) on websites that are not compliant with the Better Ads Standards starting in early 2018,” wrote Ramaswamy.

Google is a member of the industry group, Coalition for Better Ads, which recently produced its own standards for the industry to adopt to improve online advertising.

He wrote: “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.”

Ramaswamy went on to argue that by making these changes, content creators – both big and small – would have a sustainable way to fund their work with online advertising.

However the move has met with some criticism over the power this gives Google as an arbiter of acceptable ad formats.