This only applies to page covering ads for app installs. Not other interstitials. In fact Google recently did a study showing how 69% of people leave the page when faced with an interstitial [1], yet they also recently released an updated format for their own Google overlay ad [2] (although this is for apps). They don't want to lose web/search traffic to apps, but they make plenty of money running these formats themselves. A good summary of the various conflicts of interest is here [3].
Google is claiming to do this to improve user experience, however:
- they do these exact ads on every site they have
- they arent stopping other interstitials so sites can be just as annoying on the first page
- a site with great content should not be penalized for the site's own choices on ads
- they're forcing a change that affects everyone else except them
The PR signal doesnt match the execution. It's a monopolistic move and raises questions about their involvement in so many layers of the ads/web stack.
> the signal is that they don't want their search results to annoy users by showing them app install ads on the first hit
which is absolutely great. Well done Google.
Everything else in your post is weird and contradictory. They're apparently fine with advertising and non-annoying app install banners but they're going to make annoying app install banners less visible in search results. I'm really not seeing the problem.
> It might be good for the consumer but that's just a side effect.
See what I mean? So it's a great move and should be celebrated, but lets not congratulate Google on their motives? OK, I think we can all live with that.
This only applies to page covering ads for app installs. Not other interstitials. In fact Google recently did a study showing how 69% of people leave the page when faced with an interstitial [1], yet they also recently released an updated format for their own Google overlay ad [2] (although this is for apps). They don't want to lose web/search traffic to apps, but they make plenty of money running these formats themselves. A good summary of the various conflicts of interest is here [3].
1. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/07/google-ca...
2. http://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/08/beautiful-new-designs-fo...
3. http://searchengineland.com/google-goes-app-interstitial-pro...