Google has reportedly updated its advertising policies to include a condition that now allows developers to display advertisements to users from within Google Chrome extensions, marking a departure from the company"s previous stance.
According to a report on The Next Web, Google has begun emailing developers advising them of the change to Google"s ad policies and inviting them to start monetising their extensions for Google Chrome using Google"s AdSense platform. Previously, advertisements were not allowed within extensions.
"We are updating our ad policies to allow extensions to monetize through ads," the email reads. "Please ensure your extensions are in compliance by reviewing our extension ads policy guidelines."
As set out in the Chrome Developer Policy, while ads may now be allowed within extensions, they must not interfere with "any native ads or functionality of the website", must have clear attribution of where they appear, and the behaviour of the ads is clearly disclosed to users. On top of that, forcing users to click ads or submit personal information is banned, and ads must be placed in context of the app or clearly stated which app it belongs to.
At Google"s recent developer conference the company confirmed more than 310 million people actively use Chrome on a daily basis, with thousands of extensions and applications available for the web browser through the Chrome Web Store. It also recently announced mobile versions of Chrome for Apple"s iPhone and iPad, although extensions are not supported through Chrome for mobile devices as yet.
Source: The Next Web