Google Gives Users More Control Over Ads, No More Stalkers

Internet ads are always annoying, but there are examples that actually follow users to multiple sites because they were painted as the target. A lot of these ads can be loud and start auto-playing as well, which makes them especially frustrating. Google is finally helping users put an end to this by allowing them mute said ads.

Google made the announcement via blog post, where it said that it wants to provide users with more control over their experience. At first, this may seem counterintuitive for the company since its biggest revenue stream comes from ads, but it may actually be a sound business decision to start silencing pointless stalker ads.

“Reminder ads like these can be useful, but if you aren’t shopping for Snow Boot Co.’s boots anymore, then you don’t need a reminder about them. A new control within Ads Settings will enable you to mute Snow Boot Co.’s reminder ads. Today, we’re rolling out the ability to mute the reminder ads in apps and on websites that partner with us to show ads. We plan to expand this tool to control ads on YouTube, Search, and Gmail in the coming months,” the post reads.

As TechCrunch notes, allowing users to do this makes sense for Google because it wastes everyone’s time. What the business paying for the ad, the consumers looking for products, and Google, which is hosting these ads on its platform want is efficiency. The ads need to produce results and annoying the target audience is simply not doing that.

On that note, these changes and features only apply to Google. By visiting websites via their URL or by clicking links on social media, users might still find these ads and will have to mute them individually. Even so, the fact that Google is willing to do this at all is good for users.