The age of annoying pop-up adverts online may be at an end, as Google has begun blocking intrusive adverts by default in its Chrome browser. The move leaves the tech giant, which makes most of its revenue from advertising, in control of the kind of ads users can see.

Starting on 15 February, Google will use a default ad blocker in its Chrome browser aimed at stopping adverts and pop-ups which make for a slow user experience.

Flashing animated banner ads and auto-playing video adverts with sound are set to be targeted, while Google will contact websites that breach the advertising guidelines and, ultimately, block their advertising if they fail to make changes after 30 days.

The move stems from the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA), whose members include major advertising sellers such as Unilever, tech giants Google and Facebook and major news publishers such as News Corp. The move was first suggested in April last year, but Google has now moved to implement its ad-blocking technology.

"We’ve already seen more and more people express their discontent with annoying ads by installing ad blockers,", said Google's vice president of Chrome Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, "but blocking all ads can hurt sites or advertisers who aren’t doing anything disruptive."