Rumor: Google plans to add a built-in ad blocker to Chrome

Internet giant Google is considering adding a built-in and enabled ad blocker to its default Google Chrome browser, writes WSJ and several other media. At first glance, it seems that Google contradicts itself: the lion’s share of the company's profits comes from advertising, which is shown in search results, on Gmail and YouTube.

If the built-in blocker is created, it will not work according to the AdBlock model or other extensions that “cut” everything. The Google tool will be directed against the most annoying users of advertising, the progenitors of which are pop-ups and flashing banners from the nineties. For example, Chrome blocker will cut off all the same pop-up windows, self-reproducing audio and video.

In the actions of the Internet giant can be traced a certain logic: you can not win - head (with some reservations). So, Google is extremely disliked to negotiate with intermediaries represented by the authors AdBlock or uBlock. At the same time, most of the ads placed on the pages are not so obtrusive - users are searching for blockers to protect them from aggressive and potentially dangerous advertisements that they may encounter while surfing remote corners of the network.

In the WSJ edition, it is believed that the creation of a built-in blocker for one of the most popular browsers on the planet can create advertising standards and rules for banners and their content, which will not be dictated by the broker, but the Internet giant. So, in the future, adherence to the norms of page layout and banner placement will allow you to automatically “bypass” the built-in Chrome blocker.
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Google may not go to such a drastic measure from a good life: the number of users using ad blockers is constantly growing and the Internet giant has already had to agree to include “acceptable advertising” in the white list AdBlock Plus with its creators. Such a situation, from the point of view of a huge company, is not only unacceptable, but also humiliating.

Blocking absolutely all advertising has become a problem not only for Google, which still earned its $ 60 billion in 2016, but also for online publishers who have to enter the pay-wall model to survive their own resources: in some cases more than 50% of the audience uses blockers advertising. And even the proposed White-list of AdBlock Plus and other blockers is not a panacea: many users forcibly cut absolutely all advertisements, and the process of coordinating banners and their contents can be delayed for more than one month. In addition, the owners of AdBlock require considerable compensation for the inclusion of the pages of the resource in the white list.

The very fact of creating blockers and gaining popularity unleashed a kind of "arms race." Instead of unobtrusive contextual advertising, which began to gain momentum at the beginning of the decade, we are now witnessing a struggle for those who remained “without protection”. Advertisers are becoming less and less discriminating in their methods in order to attract the attention of potential consumers, which in turn causes another increase in the ranks of those who use ad blockers and "cuts" absolutely all ads.

First of all, the blocker will be created (if at all) for the desktop version of Chrome - with all the popularity of mobile platforms, they generate only about a quarter of the company's advertising revenue. The rest of the advertising revenue falls on personal computers.

If Google can take control of this situation, then in the long term, the entire web will benefit from this approach, not just the Internet giant: honest resources will not have to worry about how to make money from advertising, advertisers - where and how to be placed, and users - what to do with intrusive advertising. The only thing that worries is that Google has long ceased to be the “Corporation of Good” and it is not known how the company will behave in relation to third-party resources if it can get rid of other blockers. It is likely that the creation of a built-in blocker in Chrome, which now occupies 47.5% of the browser market, is the first step towards establishing Google’s “advertising dictatorship”. After all, it is known that the company has a very strict policy in this direction.