• 14 December, 2020
• No Comments

Google Chrome’s High-Resource Ad Blocking Spotted In The Wild

It’s no secret that digital ads on some websites are now intrusive and resources intensive. Some ad networks are known for ruining Google Chrome’s web browsing experience with videos or large images.

In September, Google announced that it will start disbanding ad iframes using too many system resources.

This new feature allows the Chrome browser to automatically block advertisements served by ad networks when they use an excessive amount of system resources or meet these criteria:

• Uses the main thread for more than 60 seconds in total
• Uses the main thread for more than 15 seconds in any 30-second window
• Uses more than 4 megabytes of network bandwidth

Also Read: Deemed Consent PDPA: How Do Businesses Comply?

Now it appears more people are getting the option in Chrome 87 for both desktop and mobile (Android), according to user reports and our own tests.

Based on multiple tests performed by BleepingComputer on sites like the New York Times, Google Chrome has now actively started targeting ads that drain device resources like network data, processing power or RAM.

When an ad reaches its limit, Chrome will automatically display an error page within the ad frame, informing users that the “ad used too many resources for your device, so we removed it”.

According to our tests, Chrome is also blocking ads served via its own AdSense product.

Also Read: 10 Principles On How To Build A Good Governance Model

If you’re interested, you can test the feature on sample contents available on heavy-ads.glitch.me.