Upcoming Google Chrome update will block websites that offer user-hostile ads

In a further bid to clean up the internet, Google has announced that Chrome 71 will block websites offering ‘abusive experiences.’  By abusive experiences, Google is referring to ads that are misleading by design. Websites that are found to be offering such content will be warned and given 30 days to clean up the site. If they fail to do so within the grace period, the site will be blocked outright. Earlier, such extreme measures were only limited to sites that were labelled as abusive. [caption id=“attachment_5510111” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Chrome 71 will block websites that show abusive content.[/caption] According to Google, abusive experiences include fake messages, unexpected click areas (like transparent backgrounds), misleading site behaviour, phishing, auto-redirect, ads that impersonate a mouse pointer and ads that attempt to get you to install malware or unwanted software. [caption id=“attachment_5509861” align=“alignnone” width=“320”] Chrome 71 will block sites that show misleading ads to users. Image: Google[/caption] Google says that such experiences are getting increasingly commonplace, with 1 in 5 feedback reports apparently mentioning some form of user-hostile content. Automatic site redirection is one of the biggest features being targeted by Chrome. Automatic redirection is when a site automatically takes you to another page without user input. This and other instances of abuse are already being targeted and blocked by the current version of Chrome. Chrome 71 simply expands the scope of this protection and, as mentioned earlier, will start blocking websites that offer such misleading content. The feature can be turned off by the user if needed, but it will be enabled by default and most users are unlikely to interfere with their settings. Hopefully, the threat of their website being blocked will be enough for site owners to clean up their act. Chrome 71 should arrive to all users in December.