All the way back in 2018, Google Chrome started blocking ads on sites that didn’t comply with the Better Ads Standards. Google continues to work on making sure ads are presented in a non-harmful way, and part of that includes how ads impact performance. Chrome will soon start blocking ads that are especially demanding on your data or CPU.
According to Google, a small percentage of ads (only 0.3%) are using 27% of the network data used by all ads in Chrome. These ads are sucking up data and draining batteries of users. Not only does that negatively affect consumers, but it strains networks and costs money. Starting this summer, Google will cap the resources a display ad can use in Chrome.
Ads in Chrome will be limited to using 4MB of network data or 15 seconds of CPU usage in any 30 second period, or 60 seconds of total CPU usage. If those thresholds are reached, the frame will show an “Ad removed” message and inform the user that the ad has used too many resources.
Google says they will be experimenting with this over the next few months and it will be launched toward the end of August. Google has long worked on blocking certain ads and intrusive video ads. Chrome is notorious for being resource-intensive, and blocking these ads could play a small part in improving the experience.
Source: Chromium Blog