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You will only see what Google wants you to see

Source: Vsoftsystems, 21/06/2018


`Well, take a look at what happened. SERIOUSLY. £482,118 in the
first month. And I`m simply blown away.`
If you`ve managed to browse the web for longer than five minutes
before being confronted with a video of a middle-aged man spouting
this baloney, you`re a luckier man than I am. I spend half my time
writing a Minecraft magazine, and this fella pops up on almost
every Minecraft site I visit, attempting to lure the kids into his
get-rich-quick scam. At least, he did until recently. It seems
he`s been blown away...
Google, the owner of the world`s most- used web browser, has said
enough is enough. It`s decided to root out a dozen of the most
hated ad formats to `improve the web for everyone` â€` chiefly
itself. Although my £482,118-earning friend hasn`t been explicitly
blocked in Chrome, it seems the sites hosting him have felt the
chill wind of potentially ending up on Google`s blacklist and
removed him voluntarily.
How can this be anything but good? Well, as I advise all young
investigative reporters, follow the money.
As of mid-February, Chrome stopped `showing all ads on sites that
repeatedly display these most disruptive ads after they`ve been
flagged`. How is Google defining `most disruptive ads`? Well, it`s
taking its cue from the Better Ads Standards, which are produced
by an organisation called the Coalition for Better Ads.
The Coalition for Better Ads has a wide and varied membership.
There`s Google itself, which should already set alarm bells
ringing for fans of conflicts of interest. Then there`s the
Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), whose members include
Google. The American Association of Advertising Agencies, whose
`industry partners` include Google. Not forgetting the Data and
Marketing Association, which proudly lists Google on its
membership list. Can anyone see a pattern emerging here?
Still, not every organisation allied to the Coalition of Better
Ads is directly related to Google. Some of them are indirectly
related â€` such as the European Interactive Digital Advertising
Alliance, whose participating associations include the IAB, who
we`ve just established have Google in the tent.
In short, of the 15 organisations identified as board members of
the Coalition for Better Ads, seven are either Google itself or
list Google among their membership/partners.
The Better Ads Standard lists 12 formats that are the `least
preferred` by consumers. On the desktop these include auto-playing
video ads with sound, which is the offence my friend trying to
make Minecraft fans rich has committed. But that list also
includes `prestitial ads with countdown` â€` which as the site
further explains, means those ads that `appear before the content
of the page has loaded, forcing the user to wait a number of
seconds before they can dismiss the ad`.
Now, I don`t know about you, but I often click on YouTube videos
where I have to wait five seconds before I can `skip the ad`. Do
these not count as the type of ads that are `designed to be
disruptive and often stand in the way of people using their
browsers for their intended purpose,` which Google promises to
outlaw in its blog heralding the Chrome ad blocker? It appears
not. `Chrome will not block pre-roll adverts on videos for
platforms such as YouTube,` The Guardian reports. How convenient.
The dirty dozen ad formats listed by the Better Ads Standard also
includes auto-playing video ads with sound on mobile devices.
That`s going to be awkward for Google, you might think, because
last year Facebook decided to let videos auto-play in its mobile
app, declaring that `we`re always working to make Facebook a
better place to watch videos`. Is the Android version of Chrome
going to block all ads on Facebook? That would be a no. Facebook`s
in-stream ads are also exempt. Oh, and guess who is another member
of the Coalition for Better Ads? I`ll give you a clue. It starts
with an F.
It`s looking like Google has cooked up a means of protecting its
own revenue, and that of its pals, disguised as an altruistic act
to better the web. Google`s blog even has the temerity to suggest
that `some sites affected by this change may also contain Google
ads` and that `your experience on the web is a higher priority
than the money that these annoying ads may generate â€` even for
us`. Google clearly forgot to add the asterisk that said,
`excluding all the ads that make us billions`.
Google has worked itself into a position where it`s now the judge,
jury and executioner of what ads are allowed to appear on the web.
Chrome accounts for 60% of web sessions on both mobile and
desktop, according to the latest figures from NetMarketShare.
Meanwhile, IAB figures show that of the $17.6 billion spent on web
advertising in the US in 2016, Google accounts for over half.
Follow the money? It`s all flowing in one direction.


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