Google Launches ‘Funding Choices’ Ad Blocker Option

Search giant says move is part of its efforts to ‘maintain a sustainable web for everyone’.

Google’s ‘Funding Choices’, which launches in multiple markets and countries in the coming weeks, will let users decide: turn off your ad blocker or make a small payment to the site.

If you’ve been using an ad blocker for any amount of time, you’ve probably come across websites that politely request you to turn off the ad-blocker in order to proceed to viewing the content. It’s not a strange request; after all, websites rely on advertising revenue in order to keep the lights on. Users are often asked to either turn off the ad blocker so that the ads appear, or to subscribe to the website.

Google say move it part of its mission of building a better web for everyone .

Unfortunately, that option only helps sites that offer subscription services, like national magazines or newspapers with a paywall; which is where Google’s new service comes in.

Added extra

The new service is in addition to Google’s own ad blocking capabilities now built into the popular Chrome browser. This feature automatically blocks ads that don’t meet Google’s standards, and those standards are fairly rigid. Earlier this year the company announced a somewhat punitive measure that knocked websites out of the top search results if their interstitial ads for mobile were considered intrusive, blocked the view of the screen, or slowed down the loading time of the website.

Google blog

“The vast majority of online content creators fund their work with advertising,” states Google’s blog on the new program. “That means they want the ads that run on their sites to be compelling, useful and engaging–ones that people actually want to see and interact with. But the reality is, it’s far too common that people encounter annoying, intrusive ads on the web.”

Improved web experience

With tech innovations such as these, the goal for many developers has been to improve the web experience, ideally creating sites that don’t cause users to deploy ad blockers in the first place. Until such time as the ad sphere becomes unobtrusive and more closely tailored to users’ needs and interests, these tactics are a sound alternative.

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