Google Will Reduce Accidental Mobile Ad Clicks, With Mandatory Borders and More

Mark Wilson submits news that Google is throwing a bone to mobile users annoyed by ads that (accidentally, or accidentally-on-purpose) make it too easy to accidentally click, breaking your browsing flow, by making those ads a bit less clickable. Writes Beta News: The company is taking steps to make the 'user experience' of ads a little better. It recognizes that advertisements that get clicked accidentally don't benefit anybody. They end up irritating the clicker, and are unlikely to be of value to the company that placed the ad. With around half of ad clicks being made by mistake, Google is now taking steps to stop this from happening — great news for users advertisers alike. In all, Google is making three key changes to ads that appear on smartphones and tablets, starting off by adding an unclickable border to the outer edges of advertisements.

Comments

Why doesn't Google just stop advertising malware?

[urbanriot]

Isn't this idea an aspect of reducing the amount of accidental clicks on malware advertisements? If so, why don't they just stop hosting malware or scam sites. There are certain keywords for legitimate services or products that are always guaranteed to give top hits in malware.

Just half?

[codepigeon]

I think that might be a liberal estimate. That number is 100% for me. I have been conditioned to immediately click the close button for every add that pops up. I don't even bother to notice what product is being advertised. I learned LONG ago that clicking on the flashy ad usually got me in trouble...followed by a format/reinstall.

I would like to know who does click on ads though. Someone has to be doing it on purpose. Curious minds want to know.

Or Stop Using Google

[theshowmecanuck]

I have started to use duckduckgo.com for searches when I'm looking for actual articles or information. I have found that I get better results. On a Google search for some information on SaaS billing integration for example, all I got from Google were spiels from companies selling shit. No articles. I did the exact same search in duckduckgo and found something I could use right away. No I don't work for duckduckgo, but I am getting sick of more and more not being able to get useful results from Google. Maybe Yahoo would give better searches to, but I have tried them lately.

Google should concentrate on better and more useful search results and stop fucking around with pushing more advertising, and to stop forcing web sites to code their sites the Google way or be kicked so far down the listing as to not be there at all. But I know that'll never happen. Maybe it is easier for Google's algorithms to mess with the sites if they are in a Google approved format. Google should concentrate on returning useful web searches. But I guess they are useful to the advertisers even if it isn't useful so much for people who are trying to use the internet to get things done.

They did

[rsilvergun]

Google rarely, if ever, allows real malware to slip through. Yes, there is adware and exploitive free to play games, but you can uninstall them and they're gone. What makes malware malware is you need to ffr to get rid of it.

I serve some ads on my site glimmersoft.com (shameless plug) and I only serve Google ads for just that reason. There's plenty of folks with better rates but they just don't have the resources to keep up with the bad guys.