• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 9, 2017

Google wants to improve searching in its browser, so the company plans to update Chrome with the ability to stop a page from unexpectedly navigating to a new page for no apparent reason.

This type of redirect often comes from third-party content embedded in the page, even when the page author did not intend the redirect to happen.

The new feature will come as a part of Google Chrome 64 and will block redirects that originate from third-party iframes. The browser will serve an infobar instead of redirecting the searcher, unless the user had been interacting with that content. This will keep the user on the page they were reading, and prevent any surprising redirects, Ryan Schoen, product manager at Google, wrote in a blog post.

Currently it is available to developers, but will become generally available in early 2018.

During the course of the next few Chrome browser releases, Google will roll out an additional two new protects that aim to protect those searching on Chrome.

Schoen describes how Chrome will block a redirect that also serves an unwanted page in a new tab. "One example that causes user frustration is when clicking a link opens the desired destination in a new tab, while the main window navigates to a different, unwanted page," he writes. "This is effectively a circumvention of Chrome's pop-up blocker, one of users' favorite features. Starting in Chrome 65 we'll also detect this behavior, trigger an infobar, and prevent the main tab from being redirected. This allows the user to continue directly to their intended destination, while also preserving the context of the page they came from."

The company will also address what it calls "abusive experiences." The Abusive Experiences Report available in the Google Search Console will allow users to see whether any of these abusive experiences have been found on their site. Abusive experiences left unaddressed for 30 days will trigger the prevention of new windows and tabs.