Dive Brief:
- Google put another nail in the Flash coffin by going 100% HTML5.
- Flash ads will no longer be able to be uploaded into AdWords or DoubleClick Digital Marketing on June 30 this year, and beginning Jan. 2, 2017 they won’t even display in both of Google’s ad networks.
- Google also announced it is boosting botnet defenses across its ad systems.
Dive Insight:
The slow death of Flash continues with Google’s announcement, although the ad network deadlines only apply to display ads as Google said video ads built in Flash “will not be impacted at this time.”
In a blog post, Google said it has rolled out tools that encourage advertisers to use HTML5 over the last few years and also offered AdWords users help in leaving Flash behind, writing, “AdWords advertisers who currently use Flash ads in their campaigns have several easy ways to ensure your creative can continue to show on the Google Display Network.”
Bots are a serious digital ad fraud issue. After analyzing 3.2 billion impressions on more than 600 million devices, digital security company Are You A Human could only verify 42% as definitely people and not bots. Not all bots are bad, but malicious bots commit ad fraud, scrape content and even post fake reviews. To see Google taking such a proactive stance against botnets is encouraging.
In a separate blog post Google wrote, “Today we're further reinforcing our existing botnet defenses across our ad systems through a new feature that automates the filtering of traffic from three of the top ad fraud botnets, amongst those we are monitoring and defending against. One of the key benefits of this new feature is that it is resilient to possible changes to the malware that generates this botnet traffic.”
And as tensions rise about ad blocking across the ad community, Google has reversed course on its earlier decision regarding ad block apps in the Google Play Store. Days after Samsung gave developers a content and ad blocking API for its mobile browser, Google began removing those apps from the Play Store. It has shifted gears and now restored at least one removed app after review.