Google will soon block battery-draining ads from loading in Chrome

Google’s Chrome browser will begin blocking resource-heavy ads starting in late August, the company announced today (via VentureBeat). By not displaying those resource-heavy ads, Chrome could ease the strain on your phone’s battery or your home network capacity.

“We have recently discovered that a fraction of a percent of ads consume a disproportionate share of device resources, such as battery and network data, without the user knowing about it,” said Marshall Vale, a product manager on the Chrome team in a blog. “These ads (such as those that mine cryptocurrency, are poorly programmed, or are unoptimized for network usage) can drain battery life, saturate already strained networks, and cost money.”

If an ad is using too many resources,...

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