• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 14, 2018

Keeping a promise made in June 2017, Google reminded publishers that on February 15, Chrome will begin removing intrusive ads from sites that do not follow the Better Ads Standards.

Chris Bentzel, engineering manager at Google, in a post provided details on how the feature works and a video on YouTube that explains the process.

Early results have led to progress. As of February 12, 42% of sites that previously failed the Better Ads Standards have resolved their issues and now pass the test.

Initially, Google's Chrome browser will evaluate sites by examining a sample of pages. "Depending on how many violations of the Better Ads Standards are found, the site will be evaluated as having a status of Passing, Warning, or Failing," explains Bentzel.

Chrome will automatically block all ads on sites, those that comply and those that don't, after 30 days following notification of the violations of failing to comply with the Better Ads Standards.

When at least one network request has been blocked, Chrome will show the user a message indicating that ad blocking has occurred as well as an option to disable this setting by selecting “allow ads on this site.”

"For desktop users, the notification in Chrome's address bar will look similar to Chrome's existing pop-up blocker," Bentzel writes in the blog post. "Android users will see message in a small infobar at the bottom of their screen, and can tap on 'details' to see more information and override the default setting."

Site owners will have the ability to view detailed results, such as specific violations, through the Ad Experience Report in Google’s Search Console.

The Ad Experience Report will highlight the annoying ads on a website for those users who verify ownership of the website.

If the site has not been reviewed, the report will not show anything. If it has the report will separate detail findings for desktop and mobile versions of the site.

If the review status is failing or warning, Google will list the violations in the "What We Found" column. If negative ad experiences are found, they are listed separately. Creative issues are shown on the site through ad tags such as flashing animated ads of AutoPlay videos with sound.