Well this is a surprise from a company that is in the ad business.
According to a report by the WSJ, sources claim that Google is planning to add an ad-block feature in the mobile and desktop versions of Chrome.
This ad blocking feature can be switched on by default on Chrome and it will filter out ads that are deemed to provide a bad experience for users.
The unacceptable ads in this case are the ones defined by the Coalition for Better Ads which include the likes of auto-playing videos, pop-ups and the ones with countdown timers. Google could consider blocking all advertising on sites with offending ads like this instead of the individual ads.
Apparently according to the sources, Google could announce the feature within weeks since they are still ironing out the details. They could also decide not to move ahead and add the feature.
Ad-blocking has been growing over time and has become a thorn to online publishers. According to a 2015 report by PageFair, ad blocking cost publishers nearly $22 billion in 2015, which is huge. In the same report, there were 198 million active ad block users around the world which was a 41% jump in a year. Right now it is definitely higher.
The rise of ad-blocking has led to publishers to implore users to whitelist their sites. If Google goes on with this project, they will join Opera with their integrated ad blocking feature. This has been a defining feature for Opera for a while now (and it also has an unlimited free VPN) and now Chrome might join this club in the future.
