Google Chrome Will Begin to Block Ads Intensively This Summer

Back in 2018, the Google Chrome browser began to block some types of advertising by default – the function officially debuted in version 71. Soon, this function will receive an update, after which the browser will fight low-quality advertising even more diligently.

The disadvantage of the built-in Google Chrome blocker is well known to all users of the browser – only certain types of advertising are subject to blocking. The tool runs on a particular protocol approved by Coalition for Better Ads, whose members are market giants such as Google and Facebook.

Earlier, the Coalition created separate lists for users of PCs and mobile devices. Invalid ads include pop-ups, full-screen ads, video ads with sound, and a countdown for closing it.

So now, Coalition for Better Ads has announced the new Better Ads Standard protocol focused on short commercials. It refers to videos lasting up to eight minutes. In developing the standard, the organization relied on research data covering 45,000 consumers from eight countries, which account for 60% of global advertising spending.

Based on this study, the following types of intrusive advertising were determined in the category of short videos:

Pre-roll ads that last more than 31 seconds without the possibility of skipping them in the first 5 seconds.
Mid-roll ads in the middle of the video, interrupting the viewing of content.
Non-linear ads that are superimposed on top of the reproduced content and occupy more than 20% of the frame area.

Google announced that beginning August 5, it will start blocking the ads mentioned above that repeatedly violate the new rules.

Other browsers will likely follow suit, especially those based on Chromium. Google also promised to test the ad display system on YouTube to make sure that it is also up to standard.