Google Chrome’s built-in ad blocker will go live on February 15th

Earlier this year, Google announced that it would be integrating an ad blocker into Chrome to cut down on spammy or intrusive advertisements. Now the company has said when to expect the blocker to go live: February 15th, 2018, via VentureBeat.

As Google has previously announced, the blocker won’t be removing all ads — just ones that are considered bad using standards determined by the Coalition for Better Ads, which bans things like full page ads, ads with autoplaying sound and video, and flashing ads.

Google will notify websites that contain these ads of a potential blocking through its Ad Experience Report tool. Sites that fail to meet those standards for 30 days will have all their ads blocked by Google — even those “owned or served by Google” — after which they’ll be able to submit for manual review to have ads re-enabled once the bad ads are removed.

Google says that the goal of the program is to help publishers by weeding out bad ads across the internet, which could cut down on users with blanket ad blockers. But it’s worth reiterating that the program will also give Google even more power over internet advertising than the prodigious amount it already possesses.

Source: theverge.com