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An upcoming version of Google’s Chrome browser will stamp out surprise ads. These ads activate when a website you are visiting unexpectedly navigates you to a new page.
Users will be happy to note that the upcoming changes to Chrome are designed to stop invasive ads which come over the browser through website redirects. This comes as developers continually find new ways to show you pesky online ads. But, now Google is countering these with new features to block them out, which will come as a welcome relief for online users.
An upcoming version of Google’s Chrome browser will stamp out surprise ads. These ads activate when a website you are visiting unexpectedly navigates you to a new page. Chrome already blocks pop-up ads. But, sneaky developers have managed to bypass these protections altogether. Developers can do this by secretly embedding some code into a website that will trigger a redirect to a new unwanted destination.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Google stated that these unwanted redirects have become an increasing complaint among its users. According to Google, 1 out of every 5 feedback reports from Chrome users on desktop talk about encountering some form of unwanted content.
The unwanted redirects often originate from third-party content which is embedded into the page. This is done in such a matter that even the website’s author is not aware of it. The Chrome version 64 will prevent these redirects. It will, therefore, keep the user on the page they were reading. And, when an unwanted redirect is encountered, the browser itself will show an info bar, stating the following message; “Success! The navigation was blocked.”
And there is, even more, to look forward too. The next version of Chrome 65, will tackle another form of pop-up ad that appears when users click a link. In this version, the link itself will open a new tab to the correct destination. However, the original browser window will navigate to the unwanted page.
Google has said that this was effectively a circumvention of Chrome’s pop-up blocker. To prevent these, the future Chrome releases will detect this behavior and prevent the redirect from occurring in the first place. These Chrome changes will hit the market to all in the first few months of 2018. Developers can test out these changes earlier in the browser’s upcoming Beta releases.
Unfortunately, the shifty ads do not stop there. Google has also been noticing another tactic where developers booby-trap a third-party link on a site. These traps serve pop-up ads or start an app download. However, these third-party links are disguised as benign controls on a website’s page and can take the form of a “Watch Video” icon or as a close button. But, starting in January, Chrome’s pop-up blocker will hopefully stop these links from opening new windows or tabs.
