Chrome Combats Cryptocurrency Commercials

Ads. Many of us hate them, whether they be pop-up ads on a website or the annoying ones that take up one fourth of the page. Google has enough of these annoying ads, and they plan to get rid of the ones they feel are the worst. That’s not all, however—Google also has plans to ban all cryptocurrency ads. Their plan was announced over a year ago, but apparently, they haven’t put it into effect yet. It has been reported to put into effect in June 2018.
Cryptocurrency ads have always been popping up, and Google wants to put an end to them systematically. According to the New York Times, Google plans to ban ads for initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrency trading advice. Google isn’t the only major web company to put an end to cryptocurrency ads. Twitter is also reportedly jumping on the high horse and banning cryptocurrency ads. Additionally, Facebook announced that it was going to ban these ads about a year before Google’s statement. In an article with CNBC Scott Spencer (Google director of sustainable ads), said “we’ve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it’s an area that we want to approach with extreme caution”. Google has a right to be worried about the security of their users. According to a study conducted by one of the leading cryptocurrency companies, Bitcoin, an estimated 9 million dollars a day are stolen by cryptocurrency fraud and scams. For that reason, Google is trying to put a permanent end to the ads on their browser.
Google has already started searching and taking down ads that weren’t up to their standards. According to a blog post posted on March 13th, Scott Spencer said “in 2017, we took down more than 3.2 billion ads that violated our ad policies”.
According to a report done by Google, they take down around 100 ads that violate standards every second. That’s not all they have done. According to the same report, they have also removed 66 million “trick-to-click ads,” and they took down around 68 million ads that tried to get users to download unwanted software. They have even gone beyond ads and have taken down 400,000 unsafe websites that had put out their ads.
Despite Google’s efforts, there will probably be no change in the frequency of the cryptocurrency ads. Some platforms still allow cryptocurrency ads to run. According to Recode, the three biggest platforms that still allow these ads are Microsoft, Snapchat, and Twitter (even though Twitter also plans to ban the ads, they still haven’t gotten rid of them).
Although cryptocurrency ads may never completely disappear, Google is still taking the time to ban these annoying ads. Some of these ads include auto- playing video ads, pop-up ads that take up most of the screen, and other types. These ads have always been a major inconvenience for people who use the browser. Even Google vice-president Roy Chowdhury expressed his dislike for the ads. He said to the Guardian, “these ads were designed to be disruptive and often stand in the way of people using their browser for their intended purpose”.
According to The New York Times, the ban on annoying ads will not be a “universal ad blocker” but a filter. It also says that it will only affect websites “that allow four types of desktop ads and eight of mobile ads” that violate their standards. These standards that Google is following are ones placed by the Coalition for Better ads, which Google is a member of. With the new standard, Google will keep working to get rid of both annoying ads and cryptocurrency ads for the everyday user.

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Bit Coin is one of the main cryptocurrency company that has had its ads banned by Google.