Google plans to automatically start blocking annoying ads that are displayed in Chrome alongside short-form videos. This is just the latest attempt by the tech industry to improve the ad experience in general.
Ads might not be popular but they are necessary for the internet to function as it currently does. Most websites use ads as a form of monetization and sometimes this can lead to sites displaying so many ads that it impacts on the user experience. In other instances, video ads are often used as they tend to generate higher revenue, but also intrude on the user experience even more. Then there are the ads that play on a video and these can often be the most intrusive of all - which is why Google is now cracking down on them.
Google announced that from August 5 it will start to block three specific ad types that the company says users find “particularly disruptive.” The blocking will only apply to videos that are eight minutes or less in duration. The first ad type in the banned list is long pre-roll ads that show up before a video starts and cannot be skipped. The second are ads that suddenly display in the middle of a video and stop the playback altogether. The third type is ads that display (and cover more than 20 percent of the video) while the content continues to play in the background. Google’s announcement coincides with the new Better Ads Standards guidelines that were also set out today by the Coalition for Better Ads. In other words, these rules will affect other services as well, including YouTube.
The Tech Industry Working Towards A Better Ad Experience (And Fewer Ad Blockers)
A trend that’s now in full effect is an improved ad experience in general. Whether it is during a video watched on YouTube or Google Chrome, or a paid-advertisement on social media, tech companies are doing more to make ads user-friendly. Of course, improving the experience is of benefit to Google (the company makes a lot of money from ads) as the more intrusive or offending ads become, the more people turn to ad blockers. By improving how ads are received, Google will be hoping the impact of ad blockers on the industry will be reduced.
What’s also important here is the duration. All the changes announced today are only for bite-sized videos. For any video that runs longer than eight minutes, the ad experience will be the same as it was before. While it is a positive that Google and others are making changes like this, differentiation based on video duration is likely to lead to an inconsistent experience overall. For example, an eight-minute video comes with all these protections, while a nine-minute one won’t. Therefore, all content creators, websites, and advertisers who want to serve annoying ads have to do, is focus on videos that are longer than eight minutes.
More: 10 Things You Didn’t Know Your Chromebook Could Do
Source: Google
