Advertising is the primary source of income for scores of sites and services across the internet, but sometimes the methods used to push products can be a little invasive. Now, Google has announced plans to give users more power to filter out the worst offenders.
It’s not uncommon for online retailers to take visitors prior activity into account when they visit their site. For instance, if you’ve previously placed a certain item in your basket but didn’t go through with the purchase, said item is more likely to show up in banner advertisement in an attempt to convince you to reconsider.
Sometimes, this works out for both parties — you might have forgotten all about that purchase, and the reminder might be pretty useful. In other cases, you may well have decided against buying that item outright, so there’s no point in seeing further adverts.
Google is now allowing users to mute these “reminder ads” in apps, and across websites that partner with the search giant for their advertising, according to a report from CNET. Going forward, the company plans to expand this functionality to cover YouTube, its search engine, and Gmail, according to a blog post published on January 25.
To take advantage of this new functionality, users should sign into the Google Account, head to Ads Settings, and find the section titled “Your reminder ads.” There, they can review a list of advertisers, clicking the X symbol to remove any reminder ads that they would prefer not to see. Muting will take effect on non-Google websites that utilize the company’s ad platform.
Google’s “Mute This Ad” feature, which allows users to prevent a specific piece of ad content from appearing again, is also being upgraded. It will now recognize feedback from any device, as long as you’re signed in with your Google account, and it’s set to appear across a larger swathe of the web thanks to new partnerships.
Advertising is big business for Google, so while these change are a boon for users, they’re also beneficial for the company. Targeted ads are the priority, since if the content isn’t relevant to the interests of the individual, they’re unlikely to have much effect.
A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server run by the VPN provider. Websites see the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours, and you can get around geo-blocks, censorship, and ISP throttling. The best VPN services are paid, but there are still a handful of free options that do the job well.
Most free VPNs come with a hidden cost, because running servers isn’t cheap and a company that doesn’t charge you has to make its money somewhere else. Many do so by logging your browsing activity and selling it to advertisers, while others flood you with ads and track you across apps.
A stocked computer cache may be convenient for logging into and out of go-to sites in seconds flat, but a major buildup of these tracking codes could significantly impact your PC’s performance. If you’ve noticed that your PC has been running rather slow of late, or you’re using a new browser and don’t know how to clear its cache, we’ve got you covered with the following guide.
If you’re looking to clean up your Gmail inbox, but you don’t want to delete anything permanently, then choosing the archive option is your best bet. Whenever you archive an email, it is removed from your inbox folder while still remaining accessible. Here’s how to access any emails you have archived previously, as well as how to move such messages back to your regular inbox for fast access.