WINTER 2017

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THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
JOE DYSART GOT POP-UP ADS? COME 2017, GOOGLE WILL PENALIZE FASTENER DISTRIBUTORS THAT DO from page 30
Indeed, a study released this past summer by the
ABOVE: THE ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGES PROJECT (AMP)
OFFERS OPEN SOURCE CODE TO COMPANY WEB DESIGNERS
LOOKING TO DESIGN MOBILE WEB PAGES THAT LOAD
FASTER.
BELOW: GOOGLE AND OTHER BUSINESSES WORRY THAT
BROWSERS ADD-ONS LIKE ADBLOCK PLUS – DESIGNED TO
BLOCK ADS ON THE WEB – WILL CONTINUE TO PROLIFERATE
IF MANY ADS CONTINUE TO BE IRRITATINGLY INTRUSIVE.
Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.com) found that
two-thirds of ad blocker users in the U.S. said they’d
consider abandoning the tool if the advertising community
cleans up its act.
“Bringing ad blocking consumers back into the fold
is the establishment of a LEAN scoring system, which will
allow for user experience to be measured against clearcut
benchmarks,” says Alanna Gombert, a senior vice
president at IAB.
Essentially, that scoring
system recommends eliminating
the same kind of pop-ads Google
will be penalizing.
Plus, it also advises fastener
distributors forgo planting ads
that auto-play audio and/or video
when a user interacts with a Web
page or ad. And it suggests that
businesses ensure ads don’t slow
Web browsing and ensure ads are
malware-free.
Another major No-No: Avoid
refusing to show content to
users who are currently using ad
blockers, according to Gombert.
Of course, it may take awhile
– if ever – before the lion’s share
of advertisers actually adopt the
IAB’s scoring system and produce
friendlier ads.
In the meantime, Google is
dead-set on moving ahead with its
ad penalization program. Specific
fastener distributors and others in the crosshairs are
those who use pop-up ads that annoy everyone by
appearing from nowhere when you’re browsing content,
and force you to search for a tiny little “X” to click on to
stop the distraction, according to Doantam Phan, product
manager, Google.
Taboo too will be the ads you find already hovering
over a when page when you click there from a Google or
other search engine link.
Also penalized will be fastener distributors that
attempt to force-feed ads to visitors by placing ads ‘abovethe-fold’
on the home page of a Web site will also suffer a
ranking downgrade.
But amidst all the discipline, there will be some
exceptions.
Pop-ups that will continue to be allowed under the
Google crackdown, include:
• Pop-up content that must legally displayed, such
as a Web site’s policy cookies or warnings to minors that
they are prohibited from visiting the Web site
• Log-in dialogue boxes that need to pop-up when
a visitor needs to enter private
credentials, such as an ID and
password, to access content
deeper in the site
• Banners that pop-up on a
page that confine their display to a
‘reasonable’ amount of space on
the page
Fastener distributors looking to
comply with Google’s new rules – as
well embrace Google’s mission to
make mobile Web browsing as fast
and effortless as possible -- can
check out a companion initiative
from Google, which offers design
tips for mobile pages that result in
quicksilver download times.
Known as The Accelerated
Mobile Pages Project (AMP) (www.
ampproject.org/docs/get_started/
about-amp.html), such pages rely on
special technical and architectural
approaches to guarantee faster
download speeds, according to
Google’s Zukoski.
“To us — and many in the industry — it was clear that
something needed to change,” Zukoski says. “That was
why we started working with the Accelerated Mobile Pages
Project, an open source initiative to improve the mobile
web experience for everyone.”
As open source project, AMP offers, free-of-charge,
download-friendly Web components businesses can
use to embed rich media objects in their pages and
digital advertising, such as video, social media, display
advertising or Web site analytics, according to Zukowski.
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