Soon, you will no longer receive unwanted notifications from abusive and disruptive websites as Google is working on cutting down on the number of unwanted Chrome notifications.
The company will be blocking notifications from websites that the company deems to be disruptive.
Google Tries a Stronger Approach to Combat Notification Spam
The notifications in Google Chrome, and generally the web are posting problems these days. Sometimes, nearly every website you try to browse prompts for permission to send you notifications.
There are times that it is just easier to simply click "allow" when there are websites that ask for your permission to use cookies or apps that need to ask for many permissions to work at all.
Then, before you even know it, your web browser is periodically getting pinged with various notifications. What's even worse is when you find yourself subscribed to Chrome notifications from a website that sends outright spam.
In recent years, Google has already started taking actions on this issue. Google has some ways of "quieting" the notification prompt from websites that abuse notifications or ask for permission in a misleading way, according to 9to5Google.
But when a site has been quieted in this way, Chrome also warns that the site may be trying to trick you.
Currently, Google is trying a stronger approach to combat notification spam. Soon, Chrome will be able to automatically revoke a website's permission to send notifications, according to a new code change. Chrome will also be able to block any future attempts to ask for permission.
The difference in this new method is now Chrome will step in and stop those notifications altogether if you've accidentally allowed notifications from a harmful site.
Chrome's existing protections are only designed to convince you not to give that permission. But still, the choice is left to you.
Read Also: Microsoft Edge vs. Google Chrome: Which Web Browser Reigns Supreme in 2022
Chrome Will Only Block What Google Deemed to be Disruptive
The new code change, however, shouldn't affect the overwhelming majority of websites that send notifications via Chrome but only those that Google has deemed to be "disruptive."
According to 9to5Google, it is not clear whether this will differ from the existing list of sites whose notification prompts have been quieted or if this is a separate method of deterrent. But from what can be observed, the feature seems to be solely intended to keep Chrome spam-free.
However, this would give Google the role of moderating/policing the web, being the decider of which websites can and cannot send notifications.
Through Chrome's built-in Safe Browsing features, which block access to harmful websites, Google has already been moderating the web to some extent. And possibly, like Safe Browsing, users will be able to disable these notification block protections through Chrome's settings.
Google justified its actions by saying that these types of disruptive notifications are in violation of the company's "Developer Terms of Service" which make mention of not using Google APIs to send any form of spam, according to 9to5Google.
But since the development on Chrome's notification spam block protection has only just started, we would probably be waiting for a few months before it becomes broadly available.
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