Google Chrome Will Block Tab-Under Behavior | Hacker News Reader

Google Chrome Will Block Tab-Under Behavior

bleepingcomputer.com

11 pointsfoob7 comments

First they block Flash ads, next a certain class of ad behavior, when are they going to get slapped with an anti-competitive behavior lawsuit?

I don't particularly like ads, but Google blocking them in Chrome is a bridge too far.

That's not quite what the article is saying however.

My read of the article is that they're blocking behavior that is abused by advertisers. I don't see how that can be a bad thing. It's good for users, but it's also good for Google and legitimate non-invasive advertisers. By allowing annoying and abusive ads, all ads get a bad name. I don't like ads either, but until a form of micro-payments becomes standard they are a pretty effective way of funding things that would otherwise not be available.

Different advertising networks offer different kinds of ads. It should be up to the webpage owners to decide what kind of ads they want on their website by choosing a different advertising network.

A porn or piracy webpage would for example prefer more visually invasive and less privacy-invasive ads. That's a perfectly legitimate offer, even if you may not like it.

Google blocking this class of adverts in their browser hurts these competitors and benefits Google.

Yeah that's a fair point, and the argument of "it should be up to the webpage owners to decide what kind of ads they want on their website by choosing a different advertising network" really resonates with me.

As a user though, I like to be able to choose a browser that helps enforce my preferences by blocking disagreeable advertising methods. I like being able to use a browser that offers popup blocking for example. I'm still scarred from the years of prolific popups ⊙︿⊙

They'll still have the freedom to use whatever ads they prefer, but I'll also have the freedom to use a browser that blocks them.

They aren't blocking "ads". They are blocking a specific undesirable browser behavior that is being exploited by some ad networks. This is conceptually no different from blocking pop-ups.

Browsers have been blocking popups for a long time. I don't like Google, but why is it suddenly unacceptable to get rid of one more popup exploit?

This has nothing to do with ads and everything to do with abusing the browser's function to be intrusive and annoying

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