Web sites that run annoying ads such as pop-ups might find all ads blocked by Google’s Chrome browser starting next year.
The digital-ad giant’s announcement comes as hundreds of millions of Internet users have already installed ad blockers on their desktop computers and cellphones to combat ads that track them and make browsing sites difficult.
These blockers threaten Web sites that rely on digital ads for revenue.
Google’s version would allow ads as long as Web sites follow industry-created guidelines and minimize certain types of ads that consumers hate. That includes pop-up ads, huge ads that do not go away when visitors scroll down a page and video ads that start playing automatically with the sound on.
The feature would be turned on by default, and users can turn it off, Google said, adding that it would work on both the desktop and mobile versions of Chrome.
Even ads it sells would be blocked on Web sites that do not get rid of annoying types of ads, Google said.
However, there might not be vast changes online triggered by the popular browser’s efforts.
It is a “small number of Web sites that are disproportionately responsible for annoying user experiences,” Google spokeswoman Suzanne Blackburn said.
“I’m sure there are some publishers who will get hurt,” Pivotal Research Group ad analyst Brian Wieser said.
However, in the long term, cracking down on irritating ads should make the Internet experience better, encouraging people to visit sites and click on links, he said. That, in turn, benefits Google.
The company is also starting a program that could help publishers deal with users who have downloaded popular ad blockers.
Some individual Web sites have come up with their own countermeasures.
For example, Forbes.com will not let users read stories without disabling their ad blocker or logging in with Facebook or Google accounts so the site can track you.
Google would work with Web sites to set up messages telling users to disable their blockers for the site or pay for a version of it with no ads. It is to take a 10 percent cut of those payments.
Facebook is also trying to make links from inside its universe less spammy for users by trying to cut down on posts and ads in the news feed that lead to junky pages with “little substantive content” and “disruptive, shocking or malicious ads,” the company said.
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