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I'm personally not 100% sure what a "Compliant ad" is...

Helpful examples of what is considered NOT compliant.

Preroll ads before "video content that is relevant to the content of the page itself" are not one of the eight ad formats that the Better Ads Standards ban. The ban on autoplaying audio explicitly does not ban preroll ads.

Do those "standards" include websites not showing ads that originate from a network, or contain content, not under their control?

No. The standards ban eight distinct ad formats deemed unacceptably annoying in tests:

- pop-ups (other than exit intent pop-ups)
- autoplaying audio (other than preroll before relevant video)
- vertical ad density over 30 percent of article space
- sticky ad taller than 30 percent of the scrolling area
- prestitials (with countdown on desktop or at all on mobile)
- postitials with countdown
- animated ads that include flashing elements
- screen-height ads that appear as a float rather than inline, thereby pausing scrolling of the article behind it (a format that I haven't personally seen in the wild)

They do not discern whether the ads are served by the publisher or by a third party, nor whether serving them relies on surveiling the viewing habits of each visitor across numerous unrelated websites in order to infer each visitor's interests.

Currently, the standards page includes a pile of 404 errors with -archived-0 in URLs, but the links from the research page still work.

Do those "standards" include websites not showing ads that originate from a network, or contain content, not under their control?

No. The standards ban eight distinct ad formats deemed unacceptably annoying in tests:

- pop-ups (other than exit intent pop-ups)
- autoplaying audio (other than preroll before relevant video)
- vertical ad density over 30 percent of article space
- sticky ad taller than 30 percent of the scrolling area
- prestitials (with countdown on desktop or at all on mobile)
- postitials with countdown
- animated ads that include flashing elements
- screen-height ads that appear as a float rather than inline, thereby pausing scrolling of the article behind it (a format that I haven't personally seen in the wild)

They do not discern whether the ads are served by the publisher or by a third party, nor whether serving them relies on surveiling the viewing habits of each visitor across numerous unrelated websites in order to infer each visitor's interests.

Currently, the standards page includes a pile of 404 errors with -archived-0 in URLs, but the links from the research page still work.

Details of what counts as unacceptable here: https://www.betterads.org/stan...

Google is a member of this group, but only one of many.

They shouldn't auto-play if they're video based.

Exactly. Such an ad will pause on the first frame and cover up the page until the user clicks to start the ad playing and waits for the ad to finish playing. This is a prestitial, and Chrome would likely automatically block it because countdown prestitials before a non-video payload violate the Better Ads Standards, but a publisher* can deploy anti-adblock to send more people to the back button.

And, last but not least, they shouldn't track you.

In order for an ad not to track the viewer across websites, it would have to be hosted by the publisher, as opposed to going through an ad network or ad exchange. Sites that have adopted this more print-like model include Daring Fireball and Read the Docs. But for sites with less reach or less homogeneous readership than those two, how is a publisher supposed to find willing advertisers without having to hire an in-house ad sales team?

* In adtech jargon, a "publisher" is the operator of a website that carries advertisements.

Google can basically redefine what they deem as an acceptable ad (ones made by themselves) on the fly. This is bad news.

Google doesn't dictate unilaterally what an acceptable Ad is. The coalition for Better Ads does. And it's comprised of more than one member. The summary of the post mentions it.

Seriously, can't we even read a couple of paragraphs?

I can see two ways that the Chrome team might consider it "technically correct (the best kind of correct)" not to block preroll ads on Dailymotion and YouTube.

I can see two ways that the Chrome team might consider it "technically correct (the best kind of correct)" not to block preroll ads on Dailymotion and YouTube.

The Coalition for Better Ads:

"While the Coalition’s consumer research was designed to identify the least preferred ad types, it also provides insight into consumers’ evaluation of a far broader range of ad experiences, including those more preferred by consumers.

Google: "We're only tracking your every move and recording your preferences to bring you a better online experience, you ungrateful dolt!"

Anonymous Coward wrote about prestitial ads on websites:

It's like trying to watch a movie that I paid for at the theater but before the projector starts, a really loud guy sitting in the seat in front of you stands up, turns around and starts yelling you about some product or service he thinks you might be interested in because the movie kinda is about that. He won't shut up and he's blocking the screen until you agree to read the brochure he's holding out in front of him.

You mean like the commercials that movie theaters have been showing for decades to supplement box office revenue? I imagine theaters do this because the movie studio gets a cut of ticket sales, but not of overpriced popcorn or these ads.

Chrome will soon block ads on sites that use prestitial ads with countdown or any prestitials on mobile.

Anonymous Coward wrote about prestitial ads on websites:

It's like trying to watch a movie that I paid for at the theater but before the projector starts, a really loud guy sitting in the seat in front of you stands up, turns around and starts yelling you about some product or service he thinks you might be interested in because the movie kinda is about that. He won't shut up and he's blocking the screen until you agree to read the brochure he's holding out in front of him.

You mean like the commercials that movie theaters have been showing for decades to supplement box office revenue? I imagine theaters do this because the movie studio gets a cut of ticket sales, but not of overpriced popcorn or these ads.

Chrome will soon block ads on sites that use prestitial ads with countdown or any prestitials on mobile.

I really hate going to a web site, wait for it to load and then suddenly BOOM! a full-page image is the first thing the appears before all the other parts of the web page. Where's the "X" so I can close it? Huh, it doesn't have one? Why can't I scroll past this? Oh, it's covering up the scroll bar.

Sounds like that ad doesn't follow The Coalition for Better Ads standards, and as such, will be blocked by Chrome as of February 15th.

As I understand Google's announced plan for Chrome, the eventual intent is to block ads on all sites that use ad formats that the Coalition for Better Ads has determined annoy viewers. Currently the Better Ads Standards deem the following formats annoying:

• Pop-up ads triggered other than through inactivity or tab invisibility
• Automatically playing ads with audio
• Prestitial ads with a countdown before close
• All prestitial ads (on mobile)
• All ads with a countdown before close (on mobile)
• Sticky ads covering more than 30 percent of the viewport
• Ads making up more than 30 percent of the document's vertical height
• Ads whose animation includes a flashing element
• Ads that the user must explicitly drag out of the way, interrupting inertial scrolling

If Chrome doesn't block Google's own ads, it's because Google doesn't offer inventory in any of the annoying formats.

Tab-unders aren't listed on the Coalition's website, but I find them worse than some of the listed formats because the act of closing such an ad destroys the back button stack.

I was disappointed that the standards didn't list the practice of "retargeting" or "remarketing" on sites with unrelated subject matter, a practice that many users claim to find creepy. But then I guess that's Google's bread and butter.

You mean such as the Initial Better Ads Standard, which mandates e.g. no pop-ups, no sounds, no flashy animations, and an ad density below 30%? They've finally realized that their business model is vanishing, so e.g. Google are now trying to save ads by following this standard.