As you know, Google Chrome went live with their ad blocking feature for sites that do not comply with Coalition For Better Ads standards. So Glenn Gabe asked if Google would be using those signals used to block ads in Chrome as ranking signals or factors for ranking in the future.
The question was asked 9:34 into the hangout and John basically said he doesn't know. He did explain that Google does have algorithms that are similar already, such as the page layout penalty and interstitials penalty, amongst others. And who knows what Google will do in the future but right now, the Chrome ad blocking stuff is completely separate from search rankings he said.
Here is the video:
Here is the transcript:
Now that Chrome is taking action against sites violating the better ad standard, will that become like a search ranking factor as well?So as far as I know at the moment this is really something only with regards to Chrome and from usability point of view.
Where if we recognize sites violates the standard the way that it’s defined, then Chrome would choose to not show any ads. So that's specifically with regards to Chrome.
I’m not aware of anything that's it's simply taking that theme to that standard to define that through to web search though. Obviously there are some of our algorithms do similar things. So if above the fold there is no useful content, there's just one big ad, then that is something where we might take action. Or on mobile, if we see interstitials that might be something that another algorithm might take action on.
So it's not the case that these kind of issues on a website are completely isolated from search but rather we just don't kind of one to one take these better ad standards into account with regards to search, at least at the moment.
I don't if this will change over time, I don't know how these algorithms will evolve over time, so that's something where I can’t like look into the future for you. But at least at the moment that's can share.
Forum discussion at Google+.
