MANILA, Philippines – Google is reportedly planning to add an ad-blocking feature on Google Chrome, its mobile and desktop browser.

Sources told The Wall Street Journal the feature would filter online ad types that may provide a bad user experience. The feature would be turned on by default within Chrome.

The Coalition for Better Ads, which released a set of guidelines for advertising standards back in March, appeared to be the likely basis for what ads would be deemed blockable. These would include pop-ups, auto-playing video ads that have sound, as well as prestitial ads that have countdown timers.

A possible application of the reported ad blocker is that it may block all advertising on sites with an offending ad, rather than just the ad itself. This may bring site owners to step up their game when it comes to policing their advertising content.

Google did not comment on the Wall Street Journal report.

Google’s Chrome browser commands a large share of the world’s browsing usage, according to statistics from W3Counter in March. – Rappler.com