Google to introduce ad blocker to Chrome next year

Google will introduce an ad blocker to Chrome early next year and has already given publishers notice.

The move will allow websites to assess their ads and pull out ones that were especially disruptive from their pages. That was because Chrome's ad blocker would not block all ads from the web. Rather, it would only block ads on pages that had too many annoying or intrusive advertisements, like videos that autoplayed with sound or interstitials that took up the entire screen.

Shridhar Ramaswany, the executive in charge of Google's ads, writes in a blog post that even ads ''owned or served by Google'' will be blocked on pages that did not meet Chrome's guidelines.

''All content creators ... can continue to have a sustainable way to fund their work."

The Wall Street Journal said, Google was referring to the feature as an ad ''blocker'' instead of an ad ''filter'', since it will still allow ads to be displayed on pages that met the right requirements. The feature will work on both desktop and mobile.

Google is offering a tool for publishers to determine if their sites' ads were in violation and will be blocked in Chrome. Ads that were unacceptable will be determined by a group called the Coalition for Better Ads, which included Google, Facebook, News Corp, and The Washington Post as members.

"We've all known for a while that the ad experience is a real problem, and that it's confused and angered users," Ramaswamy, told Ad Age. "We realized solutions like ad blockers punish everybody, including publishers who develop great content and are thoughtful about the ad experience they put on their site."

"We think getting ads right is really, really important to the future for the internet. We love the sources of information that makes the internet great," Ramaswamy said. "What's scary is ad blocking has been a big problem on desktop and has been a big problem for the last few years."