Image from Coalition for Better Ads
If you're like us, you probably encountered videos with annoying ads while browsing the internet or watching YouTube, some that appear in the middle of watching a video. This can happen even for short videos, which gets annoying. Now, it looks like Google wants to start putting a stop to that by setting up restrictions.
According to a Google blog post, the company started to remove intrusive ads from Chrome in 2018 and have seen less ad-blocking in Chrome for North America and Europe. Based on the recently released Better Ads Standards, Google is looking to restrict three forms of ads.
Intrusive ads for videos of less than 8 minutes in length:
- Ads that appear in the middle of videos
- Ads over 31 seconds but cannot be skipped after 5 seconds
- Ads in the form of image or text overlays that cover more than 20% of the video
In future, Google will be extending user protection in Chrome to cover ads like this. In other words, users won't have to see them when using the Chrome browser. Google will also be doing a review of YouTube to ensure it complies with the new set of standards. By reducing the number of videos and sites with intrusive ads like the above, Google hopes to encourage more users to stop using ad-blockers.
Less ad-blocking means more ad-revenue for Google. Considering how Google made USD 15 billion (~RM61.76 billion) from YouTube alone last year, the company has plenty of incentive to discourage the use of ad-blockers. Having said that, would Google's proposed measures be enough to make you stop blocking ads? Let us know on our Facebook page and stay tuned to TechNave.com for other news.
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