We’ve all done it. While trying to tap a breaking-news link, your friend’s new profile picture, or a search engine result; you tap the banner on the bottom of the page instead. Suddenly you are whisked away from whatever you were trying to see, only to find yourself on the fruit-of-the-month homepage or maybe some obscure dating site. Either way, profanities ensue while you bat tirelessly at the back button. There has to be an easier way, right? Google thinks so.
Google is in the process of implementing their new ‘confirmed click’ feature. This feature is a sanity-saver for smartphone users as well as advertisers who are likely paying for all those unintentional clicks. The idea is simple, really. When an over-sized or over-zealous finger makes its way into the space on the edge of an advertisement, instead of immediately redirecting the user to the advertiser’s site, they are prompted to confirm whether or not their click was intentional by clicking ‘visit site’ in a pop-up box supplied by Google.
If the user clicks ‘visit site’, confirming that they did indeed click the ad intentionally, they are then directed to the advertiser’s web site. If they do nothing, indicating that the tap on the banner was unintentional, the pop-up box disappears and the user avoids the inconvenience of being accidentally redirected to a page they have no desire to visit. Not only does this avoid unnecessary frustration on the smartphone user’s end, it also keeps advertisers from having to pay for a click that, ultimately, would provide to revenue for their business. Win-win!
So far Google’s new feature has been integrated into all in-app image ad banners on smartphones. Though advertising on mobile is still in its early stages, Google’s efforts to streamline advertiser-user interaction is a giant step in the right direction for everyone involved.