Websites with overly intrusive advertisements have less than two months to clean up their acts or face the wrath of Google’s Chrome browser. Starting on February 15, Chrome will automatically block all ads on sites don’t meet industry guidelines, VentureBeat reports. That means avoiding pop-ups, prestitial ads with countdown timers, auto-playing videos with sound, and large ads that stick to the screen as you scroll. On mobile devices, the guidelines also discourage flashing animations, full-screen scrollover ads, and ads that occupy more than 30% of the display.
Google announced its ad-blocking plans in June, and has been working with other websites and ad agencies to come up with best practices. The hope is that if browser ads become less obnoxious, users might not go nuclear and install a third-party ad blocker. (That said, the popular AdBlock Plus also has its own “Acceptable Ads” framework that it uses to whitelist certain sites.)
Even without the ad blocker, Google plans to stop one of the biggest browser annoyances next month: Automatic video playback won’t be allowed in Chrome unless audio is muted by default.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
