Accidentally clicking on ads is pretty common, especially when you’re using a mobile device. More often than not, all it takes is your finger slightly brushing up against an ad for it to redirect you to a new page, and many developers even design the layout of their app to make it easier to accidentally click on an ad. Obviously this is incredibly annoying for the user, which is why Google is updating its own mobile ads to reduce this kind of thing.
Most of us have probably accidentally clicked on a mobile ad or two in our times, whether we were scrolling and hit an ad, tried to tap on an “X” to close the ad but clicked the ad itself instead, or something else. Google realizes this, and it’s going to try and fix the problem. Google is making three updates to its mobile ads that aim to reduce accidental clicks from users on smartphones on tablets. The first step that Google is taking is to block clicks that take place close to the edges of the ad. El Goog says that the outer edges are prone to accidental clicks, so now you’ll have to click closer to the center of the image to activate an ad. Second, Google is blocking clicks on an app icon that are contained within in-app interstital ads. You’ll now have to click on the call-to-action button to jump to the app store and install the app. Finally, ads will only be clickable after they’ve been onscreen for a brief period of time. This will reduce accidental clicks on ads that you didn’t expect to see, like when you’re scrolling through a page and an ad pops up.
