Google Contributor – Experimental service for ad-free websites

Currently the web runs with the support of revenue generated from the advertisement. The websites you visit display a couple of ad-blocks which generates revenue for the website’s creators to do more for you. This factor, Google is trying to remove from the internet with the help of new service “Contributor” while provides a new way for the website creators to generate revenue as well as ad-free web surfing to the visitors.

Google is testing its new service dubbed “Contributor” to help remove ads on the websites – but that is currently the main source of revenue for the websites or web publishers. Google Contributor will allow visitors of the website to pay a fee from $1 to $3  monthly if they really don’t want to see ads on the website they are exploring. Instead of the advertisement, the visitors will see a “Thank you” note.

“Choose a monthly contribution. From $1-3, you set your monthly amount. The more you contribute, the more you support the websites you visit” says the Google Contributor “When you visit a participating website, part of your contribution goes to the creators of that site. As a reminder of your support, you’ll see a thank you message – often accompanied by a pixel pattern – where you might normally see an ad.”

For now Google is partnering with a few publishers to experiment with this service which include Urban Dictionary, The Onion, Science Daily, Wiki How, Mashable and Imgur. If you are interested to join the program you can signup and add yourself in a waiting list Google has for you.

There is yet no words how Google will share the revenue from Contributor with the web publishers however this thing is more focused to facilitate visitors and users exploring the internet which will be free from ads. The more they spend on the contribution, the more they will see a “thank you”  note instead of the ad-block. The publishers will not see a significant increment or decrement in their revenue.

“The amount we keep is the same we charge advertisers to show their ads,” Andrea Faville, a spokesperson at Google  said.  “In terms of the rates, the amount that goes to the publishers is essentially the market rate for ad space on their site (in the ad auction). So the amounts going to publishers wouldn’t really be affected, although the higher the amount in a person’s Contributor account, the more times they would see the thank-you messages versus ads,” he also added.

With monthly fee, Google Contributor will give its customers a privacy and an ad-free web experience. Yes! privacy is yet one of the biggest problem with the advertisement. Being a visitor you are tracked throughout your web surfing. That way Contributor seems to be a good approach but it of course will affect the visitors directly for paying fees to explore ad-free internet.

Services like this include “Readability” which permitted its customers to pay a monthly fee that was shared with its partnering web publishers when the customer visits their website. The difference was that “Readability” took the partners on board and yet failed to attract customers. Unlike that Google is providing everyone a platform where any web publisher can join in via invitations and applications. Have you checked the waiting list?

It’s yet debatable that how a free-visitor will convert to a paid-customer directly paying to Google for the ad-free web surfing. Let us know if you will pay to stop seeing ads on the websites you visit daily or you will still prefer to put an ad-blocker on your web browser to stop seeing those unwanted ads. This service however can be a good medium for some who will want to pay an ad-free and privacy controlled experience on their favourite websites.

via: CNET