Google is known for its healthy appetite for innovation and groundbreaking ideas. The company is also well known for taking risks and trying out new things – some of which pay off well while others not so much. Staying true to its nature, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has once again come up with another idea to introduce web pages to viewers, which will be completely add-free. A lot of websites and pages on the internet provide their services to the users for free but make money via publishing ads. This could be perceived as a strange move as well considering Google’s own dependency on advertisement for revenue generation.
But there is a catch…
On Thursday Google Inc. Announced that the company aims at providing readers with an option of paying $1 to $3 into the virtual tip jar if they want to access add free pages. The publishers of these pages will get paid based on the views a page gets.
As mentioned before, Google makes money based on advertisements, so for a company that gathers revenues through ads, to make such a decision seems perilous. The participants of this idea will be handled through Google user accounts and Google will pay the publishers whenever their pages gets viewed; after the payment Google will get its share and this way will keep making money even after offering add-free pages.
Google has decided to make this service available on a trial basis for now along with content partners such as Mashable, Imgur, as well as the Union and Urban Dictionary. However, the service for contributors is only available in the U.S. Google might make it available worldwide if the trial period proved to be successful.
Google has previously tried offering its publishers as well as content creators with alternate ways to create a readership without the help of advertisements for revenues. One such initiative by Google was the Google Consumer Surveys, in which the readers are presented with a survey that is to be filled prior to gaining access to the page the reader is interested in. By filling out the survey before viewing the page the reader gets to have a completely ad-free experience. Google has also created a tip jar for its YouTube channels. Google through this tip jar allows its viewers to donate as much as $500 and in turn the viewrs can watch videos without ads.
Most of the content on the internet has ads. Mostly the websites provide their services for free but make money through ads that are shown on their pages. Most newspapers as well as media companies however hide its content from users through “paywalls” until they pay a subscription fee. Google’s Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) experiment with the add-free web with micro transactions provides a better solution than paywalls and keeps the unwanted advertisements away from web pages.
It is not yet clear how long the trial period will take and whether it will be successful or not. However, many users would be anxiously waiting for the service to become available because having an ad-free online experience will be a breath of fresh air for many.
