Google’s in-house ad blocker is now rolling out to both Chrome Canary and Chrome Dev, the developer-focused builds of the search giant’s mobile browser. While Google has stated that it will deploy the ad blocker in 2018, it is decided to start testing the feature for bugs and other similar flaws. Once the feature matures, it will then likely move to the beta version of the Chrome app, where more people could test the aforementioned feature. The setting for Chrome’s built-in ad blocker can be accessed in the ads portion of the application’s site settings. The user has the option to either turn the feature on or off, although in the developer builds the feature is turned on automatically.

Despite the term ad blocker, what the feature really does is to filter advertisements that negatively impact the content consumption experience of a user. The ad filter removes advertisements that are considered offensive based on the list prepared by the Coalition for Better Ads. The aforementioned list was formed after surveying users on what types of advertisements they least prefer on desktop and mobile. The group’s initial list highlights eight kinds of advertisements that fall beneath its threshold of consumer acceptability. For mobile users, these include auto-playing videos, pop-up advertisements, and full-screen advertisements with accompanying countdowns that often appear before accessing the site’s content. In addition, the group noted that advertisements that take up at least 30 percent of the device’s total screen real estate are also considered offensive. Google Chrome’s ad filter removes these advertisements while retaining other ads that do not significantly impact web browsing experience.

The deployment of ad blocking feature aims to deter to increasing use of ad blockers, which is a major concern for digital advertisers and content creators. Google, along with the Coalition for Better Ads, hopes that by removing ad experiences that frustrate consumers, the adoption rate of ad blockers could be diminished. Publishers, on the other hand, are given several months to prepare for the new feature by removing any advertisements that violate the Coalition’s guidelines. Inability to do so could result in Google blocking all advertisements from the offending website.

source: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/08/google-tests-ad-filter-feature-chrome-canary-chrome-dev.html