Google has been an innovator in the online ad industry since the very beginning, and that is not about to change. According to a recent announcement, Google is currently working on rolling out a new ad system that they are calling Amp for Ads (A4A). Users won’t notice too much different visually, but on the back end it is going to be quite an improvement according to initial reports.
The goal, they say, is to make advertisements less impactful to the overall user experience, which will hopefully give users less reason to attempt to block them.
The most important improvement is that ads using this system can load in about a third the time that they would normally take. This is important for many reasons, not the least of which is a reduced impact on battery life. With so much time being spent online on mobile phones and tablets, this could actually be quite a significant benefit.
According to reports of the technology behind the system, a page that would currently take three minutes to load, would be completed in under 50 seconds. Of course, ads today take very little time, but cutting it down further is definitely a good thing.
In addition, this system doesn’t load any ads on the page until all the content has completed loading. This helps to ensure the users are getting a good experience, even at the expense of the ads. The system also manages the overall layout of the page to help ensure the ad space doesn’t interfere with the content in any questionable ways.
Looking at the way this system works, it should provide a much nicer overall experience to users. While it won’t likely eliminate the need for ad blocking all together, it is a nice step to address the common complaints of users that may lead them to block ads.
