Keith J. Kelly

Keith J. Kelly

Media

Google warns 700 publishers digital ads will be blocked by Chrome update

Google has warned about 700 publishers that their current digital ads would be blocked from reaching consumers under the new Chrome browser system set to be introduced next year that will have much tighter ad-blocking software.

Google is not expected to be the only one tightening its standards. Apple’s Safari, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, according to one industry executive, all expected to tighten browser standards to keep out the most intrusive ads.

The Coalition for Better Ads, an umbrella organization that formed just over a year ago, has been trying to form standards that will enable the industry to self-regulate.

“One thing that everyone agreed on was that anything that was done [to clean up the ads] must be done under industry auspices,” noted Randall Rothenberg, head of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which is one of the founding members of the CBA. “Everyone was opposed to individual browser companies implementing their own standards to clean up the bad user experiences,” he said. The one-off approach, he said, would lead to “chaos in the ad market.”

“Google has been very public saying it does not want to do anything outside the Coalition,” according to Rothenberg.

Among the 700 sites that are deemed to be in danger of failing the new standards are Forbes, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine and others, according to Digiday, which first reported that Google had sent notices to 700 publishers.

The reason advertisers, marketers and publishers would band together to police their own ads is to discourage consumers from getting so annoyed with intrusive ads that they turn on ad blockers that stop all advertising. Since the overwhelming majority of sites on the Web today are ad supported with no paywall, it will be a huge financial problem to publishers if ads are blocked from reaching consumers.

“The Coalition works with entities from across the global digital ad supply chain as the solutions to bad online ad experiences require broad support,” said Brendan McCormick, a spokesman for the coalition.