What Happens If Google Starts Blocking Advertisements?
If Google blocks ads will we have to pay to play? Ads can be annoying, but, if banned, it could change the web as we know it.
Hover ads. Interstitials and prestitials. Banner ads.Clickbait.
Debates rage about if these prominent forms of digital advertising are essential for maintaining a free-to-view internet. Or if ads are the intrusive endgame of an industry left unchecked.
We need advertisements, they pay the way.
Few people dispute that online content has to be paid for somehow. Without advertising revenue, many content providers would retreat behind paywalls or go out of business. But are floating hover ads and flashing banners really the best way of promoting legitimate products and services? Are they just old hat remnants from offline approaches?
Google doesn’t think so. The algorithms used to collate search results have started treating content-obscuring prestitial and interstitial ads as a page’s primary content. This results in huge SEO markdowns. Analysis of page loading times includes autoplaying videos or slideshow banner ads will hurt a website’s SEO performance.
Staying competitive, but how do you fight Google?
Google has historically shied away from blocking adverts, leaving it to specialists like Android’s Brave browser or the wildly popular Adblock Plus program. Even Apple has permitted iOS apps that block ads in its Safari browser. However, the Wall Street Journal recently suggested Google may be planning an ad-blocker in future versions of its all-conquering Chrome browser. Since Chrome displays over half of the world’s webpage content, this would herald a seismic change in our relationship with the internet.
It’s all about user experience.
Google has been working with the Coalition for Better Ads over recent months, as it tries to improve the user experience in Chrome. The CBA’s Better Ads Standards are based on detailed research indicating huge resentment towards pop-ups and auto-playing videos on desktop devices. The mobile blacklist also includes flashing animated ads and full-screen scrollovers. There’s widespread public hostility to clickbait ads, typically promoting poorly-written listicles with graphic images and misleading captions.
This may spell the end of some business model problems.
Google is one of the world’s leading online advertising platforms, so embedded ads on reputable websites probably wouldn’t be affected by a Chrome ad-blocker. However, income streams would instantly dry up for many fringe websites, forcing them out of business. Small user bases can’t support a membership model, and the complexity of installing paywalls is beyond many amateur webmasters. And although Google will accept ad campaigns of any budget, other online advertising services only work with sites attracting huge traffic volumes.
BuzzFeed may be in peril.
Without committed volunteers or deep-pocketed benefactors, many message boards and enthusiast websites would vanish. Smaller corporate websites might retreat behind paywalls, making it harder to find information without handing over credit card details. Other sites may adopt the approach taken by some media platforms of allowing each IP address a couple of free articles a month, before gating subsequent attempts to view material. Even online giants like BuzzFeed might be in peril, since they’re almost entirely funded by advertising.
Focusing on Quality Ads
Most people agree that eliminating bad adverts would improve our web browsing experience. The bigger issue involves quantifying ‘bad’ advertising, and driving up standards rather than banning digital ads altogether. It remains to be seen whether removing interstitial ads and hover ads would enhance our online experience or diminish the volume of available content. One thing is certain – threats to online advertising represent one of the biggest challenges the internet has ever faced, and free online content may become an endangered species if Google’s plans are fully enacted.