Google and Partners Try to Block the March of Ad-Blockers

After seven months of work, the biggest digital advertising companies think they have a solution to the existential threat of consumers blocking online ads. According to Bloomberg, Google is at the center of the plan, although the company and its partners are keen to present the initiative as a group effort.

The Coalition for Better Ads published a list of undesirable online ads earlier this year. Google plans to add a feature to its Chrome web browser that would disable those ads. The feature is designed for publishers, rather than a tool for consumers, and would operate the same way Chrome already filters ads that are undesirable in other ways like those that drain computer batteries, according to people familiar with the plans.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Google's potential decision earlier this week, sparking criticism that the search ad giant was again exerting too much control over the market for digital ads. Now industry partners are stressing that the plan is a group effort and not finalized. They also distanced Google's tool from the existing ad blockers that prompted the initiative in the first place.

"There is no ad-blocker that's going into a browser," Randall Rothenberg, head of the Interactive Advertising Bureau trade group, said, although he wouldn't offer further details on the tool. "What we want is something that's industry-wide, that can demonstrably improve user experience and that's embraced by pretty much everyone.

Rothenberg helped set up the Coalition for Better Ads in September. Beyond Google, members include some of the largest marketers, ad agencies, media organizations and Facebook. In March, the group issued its list of ad units, including those that takeover entire screens or videos that start automatically, that it claimed are most likely to prompt people to download ad blockers.

The Chrome option is different from current ad-blockers, which are downloaded as mobile apps or web browser plug-ins to zap most marketing messages, according to people familiar with the plans. Instead it may look like similar tools that Google builds into its browser. Last fall, Chrome began automatically disabling ads that use multimedia Flash players, citing computer battery drain.

People in the Coalition said they expect Google will also hold its own search, display and YouTube ads to the same standards it imposes on the rest of the industry, although the terms have not been finalized. The people asked not to be identified discussing private matters. Google declined to comment on potential Chrome features.

An attempt from Google, the largest digital ad-seller, to limit other companies' ads through its browser could open the company to further antitrust scrutiny. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, wrote on Twitter that she would "follow this new feature" closely. She is already overseeing a multi-pronged antitrust case against Google.