Google expanding Chrome ad-blocking initiative to global markets this July

Google will expand Chrome’s recent adblocking endeavors beyond the U.S., Canada, and Europe later this year, the company has announced. From July 2019, Chrome will filter online ads across the globe that don’t comply with the Coalition for Better Ads‘ (CBA) standards in an effort to improve the user experience.

Google introduced the new ad-blocking initiative with Chrome version 71 in December. This browser version blocked disruptive ads on websites that continually breached the advertising guidelines drafted by the CBA.

The CBA’s guidelines identify 12 types of ad experiences web users find intrusive. Among them are auto-playing ads with sound, flashing animated ads, and ads occupying inordinately large areas of the display.

Google says the overall aim isn’t to block bad ads, but to encourage outlets to improve the way they deliver them — and it seems to be working. The search giant says two-thirds of the websites previously breaching the guidelines have altered their strategy to comply with them, and that it has only filtered one percent of ads using this scheme out of millions it investigated.

It’s actually in Google’s best interests to tackle this problem as its predominant revenue stream — by a huge margin — is advertising. It’s been great news for those of us in the U.S., Canada, and Europe so far, as it means tens of thousands of websites no longer display those aggressive adverts. Six months is still a long wait for those of you living in other territories, though.