Be careful celebrating Google’s new ad blocker

The Intercept:

The ad blocker — which Google is calling a “filter” — would roll out next year, and would be the default setting for Chrome when fully functional. In other words, the normal user sparking up their Chrome browser simply wouldn’t see the ads blocked by the system.

What ads would get blocked? The ones not sold by Google, for the most part.

This is a way for Google to crush its few remaining competitors by pre-installing an ad zapper that it controls to the most common web browser. That’s a great way for a monopoly to remain a monopoly.

I was automatically and understandably skeptical about the stories that Google would create an ad blocker for the Chrome web browser. As expected, this benefits Google the most and might actually hurt many users.