Advertising
1 min read

Google’s ad blocker could make it the sole arbiter of online ads

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Two things that give digital media executives nightmares: the increasing use of ad blockers and the 49 percent share of all digital ad revenue growth currently going to Google.

So with Google’s Thursday blog post confirming the 2018 release of an ad blocker for its hugely popular Chrome web browser, those executives might start experiencing full-on night terrors.

“I don’t love that Google is kind of imposing a solution through Chrome,” said David Chavern, leader of the News Media Alliance, an industry association for print and digital news organizations. “It’s sort of saying ‘Here, publishers, this the deal. Take it or leave it.’”

If a website consistently violates Google’s standards, the filter will block all ads on that website. In addition to the ad blocker, Google is introducing a tool called “Funding Choices” that will allow publishers to ask readers to either disable ad blockers or pay to view content without ads — and Google would get a cut of the payment.

Read more…