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Some advertising industry insiders suspect that ad blocking done by Google’s Chrome browser is a self-serving act, and that Google held sway over the coalition that chose the unacceptable ad types, reports Fred Campbell for forbes.com.

The Chrome browser has started blocking ads on websites using ad types not approved by the Coalition for Better Ads.But such measure is part of a coordinated action to preserve Google’s dominance in online advertising through anti-competitive means.Google had started probing the types of ads that users find most irritating in 2015 when the coalition was not yet existing.The coalition standards reject prestitial web ads, ads that appear before content on a homepage with a countdown but not YouTube’s interstitial web ads (video ads that appear before particular content with a countdown).

Should a publisher choose to use ad types deemed unacceptable by the coalition, it gives Chrome the opportunity to block all ads on its sites, including those meeting the coalition’s standards.The result is that revenues to those sites would plunge.But YouTube and AdSense inventories will not be affected by the coalition’s standards.

This will have an impact on the capability of advertising agencies to compete with Google because it restricts the sale of ad types that can differentiate them from Google’s advertising services.Advertisers will no longer have the incentive to choose an ad start-up but will simply commit more budget to Google’s display network and the traditional search network of ads.

In a market not dominated by Google, advertisers and publishers have the freedom to use all types of ads deemed improper by the coalition but since Chrome commands 65 percent of the web browser market, publishers can choose to follow the coalition’s standards or simply go out of business.  

Despite evidence that Google is resorting to anti-competitive measures to maintain its monopoly in online advertising, the Trump administration, like the previous Obama administration, has not curtailed Google’s unfair practices.