Google is doing more to combat resource-intensive ads that can dampen the overall user experience. Google wrote in a blog post. So beginning this summer, Google will cap the resources a display ad can use in Chrome in order to protect users’ batteries and data plans.
The search giant said it is experimenting with setting limits on the resources an ad may use; should it exceed a specific threshold, the ad will be unloaded and the user would instead see an error message.
Google considers an ad to be too “heavy” if the user has not interacted with it and it meets any of the following criteria:
Uses the main CPU thread for more than 15 seconds in any 30-second window
Uses the main CPU thread for more than 60 seconds in total
Uses more than 4MB of network bandwidth
Google plans to experiment with the feature over the next several months and to introduce it near the end of August. This should give ad creators and tool providers time to adapt.
Chrome is generally thought of as a more resource-intensive, battery-draining browser compared to its competitors, so while the change will only impact a small percentage of ads, it could provide some relief. Along with past improvements, like filtering disruptive ads and blocking all ads on consistently deceptive websites, this could make Chrome a little more appealing.
