Interesting read: Google’s ad blocker could make it the “judge and jury” of online ads.
Two things that give digital media executives nightmares: the increasing use of ad blockers and the 49 percent share of all digital ad revenue growth currently going to Google. So with Google’s Thursday blog post confirming the 2018 release of an ad blocker for its hugely popular Chrome web browser, those executives might start experiencing full-on night terrors.
Google and Facebook dominate the digital advertising industry; the two companies reportedly accounted for 89 percent of all digital ad revenue growth in 2016.
Google Chrome is already the most-used web browser in the U.S., with a 44.5 percent market share. According to Google, the ad blocker will be turned on by default, screening content and flagging advertisements that don’t conform to standards laid out by the industry trade group Coalition for Better Ads (CBA). Google and Facebook are members of the CBA along with many other media companies and trade associations.
If a website consistently violates those standards, the filter will block all ads on that website. In addition to the ad blocker, Google is introducing a tool called “Funding Choices” that will allow publishers to ask readers to either disable ad blockers or pay to view content without ads — and Google would get a cut of the payment.
TechDarshan 