Google Readies the Guillotine for Annoying Ads

The user experience on the Internet of late has taken on the feeling of 1980s Times Square, a bit sleazy and advertising everywhere. Google is about to clean up many of the most annoying ads. Auto-played video ads with sounds, ads that make you wait for content, certain pop-ups, and more. Google will put technology in its Chrome browser that will filter out many of these annoyances. Jack Marshall writes at The Wall Street Journal:

Google has told publishers it will give them at least six months to prepare for a new ad-blocking tool the company is planning to introduce in its Chrome web browser next year.

The new setting, which is expected to be switched on by default within the desktop and mobile versions of Chrome, will prevent all ads from appearing on websites that are deemed to provide a bad advertising experience for users

The group’s initial list of unacceptable ad types, released in March, included pop-ups, auto-playing video ads with sound and “prestitial” ads that count down before displaying content. Google is a member of the group, alongside fellow ad giant Facebook , and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp .

Google’s Chrome dominates the internet browser market with nearly 60% share across mobile and desktop devices, according to internet statistics provider NetMarketShare.

But while this may clear up your user experience, it’s also a way for Google to block some of its competitors from selling ads. It might be a response to some independent ad-blocking software that can block Google ads as well. Using the Chrome ad filter (Google doesn’t call it a blocker) may leave you seeing more ads than if you are using a third party plug-in to block ads now.