Google Chrome has a new plan to fight shady ads

Google Chrome will soon step up its fight against the worst kind of ads.

An upcoming version of the browser will block *ALL* ads on websites that show abusive ads, Google announced. 

With the change, Google is targeting the worst of the worst: Ads that trick users into opening new tabs or download shady files without permission. These ads are not only incredibly frustrating, resulting in a bunch of tabs you never intended to open or files you never meant to download, but also potentially dangerous. These ads are often used to enable phishing attacks and other scams.

Google has targeted deceptive ads in the past. An update announced last year aimed to block pop-ups and downloads from them. Google now says those changes “did not go far enough.”

“In fact, more than half of these abusive experiences are not blocked by our current set of protections, and nearly all involve harmful or misleading ads,” writes Google product manager Vivek Sekhar. 

With the update, expected to roll out in December with Chrome 71, Chrome will ramp up enforcement. Site owners will have a 30-day window to remove shady ads after they’re detected and, if the owners fail to do so, Chrome will simply start blocking all ads on the site, not just the scammy ones. This should serve a powerful deterrent to website owners, who rely on ad revenue.

Sekhar notes that only a “small number of sites” frequently use these types of ads to begin with, so the change may not be immediately noticeable unless you frequent those types of sites. In any case, it should come as a relief that browsing will be a little safer.