Google is reportedly planning to add an inbuilt ad-blocker to its Chrome browser. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the feature may be switched on by default from within the browser. It would then filter out ads deemed to provide poor experiences for users. These ads would be those defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, which is an industry group that released a list of standards in March. These included ad formats like pop-ups, auto-playing video ads with sound and prestitial ads with countdown timers. Sources also told the publication that Google may announce the feature within a few weeks. Google’s I/O event is scheduled to be held next month and it is possible that the company might unveil the feature at the event. However, the report notes that Google is still ironing out details and there is a chance that the company may choose not to introduce the feature.
If Chrome does introduce such a feature, it won’t be the first browser to do so. Last year, Opera announced that it was integrating an ad-blocker into its browsers. The company claimed that by removing advertisements, its Opera Mini browser loaded 40 percent faster, and enabling users to save 14 percent of their data. The browser would also give users the option to check out statistics like the number of advertisements blocked on the current page, as well as the total number of advertisements that have been blocked.