Google Chrome is coming with an interesting update: No more unexpected website redirects

Google is aiming to improve your browsing experience and at the same time restrict third-party interventions. To accomplish this, Google is now updating its web application Google Chrome and adding the ability to block website redirects.

While that's a sign of relief, the new feature will come as a part of Google Chrome 64. Currently, it is available in Canary and Dev channels only. It will be made available to the general public in early 2018. "Similar to how Google Safe Browsing protects users from malicious content, starting in early January Chrome's pop-up blocker will prevent sites with these types of abusive experiences from opening new windows or tabs," the company said in its blog post.

"One piece of feedback we regularly hear from users is that a page will unexpectedly navigate to a new page, for seemingly no reason. We've found that this redirect often comes from third-party content embedded in the page, and the page author didn't intend the redirect to happen at all. To address this, in Chrome 64 all redirects originating from third-party iframes will show an infobar instead of redirecting unless the user had been interacting with that frame. This will keep the user on the page they were reading, and prevent those surprising redirects," Google stated.

Following on from features like Chrome's pop-up blocker and autoplay protections, over the next few releases Google will be rolling out three new protections designed to give users all the web has to offer, but without many of these types of unwanted behaviors.

First, as mentioned above, the browser will show an infobar on top to highlight the blocking of the redirect action.

Secondly, Google will block a redirection that brings an unwanted page alongside opening the desired destination in a new tab. "Most users get frustrated when on clicking a link opens the desired destination in a new tab, while the main window navigates to a different, unwanted page. This is effectively a circumvention of Chrome's pop-up blocker, one of users' favorite features. Starting in Chrome 65 we'll also detect this behavior, trigger an infobar, and prevent the main tab from being redirected," the company explained.

Well, this will allow the users to continue directly to their intended destination, while also preserving the context of the page they came from.

And lastly Google is aiming to address the issue of abusive experiences that are hard to automatically detect and these links usually send users to unintended destinations. Google is launching the Abusive Experiences Report alongside other similar reports in the Google Search Console. Site owners can use the report to see if any of these abusive experiences have been found on their site and improve their user experience. Abusive experiences left unaddressed for 30 days will trigger the prevention of new windows and tabs.

"Together these protections will dramatically improve users' web browsing experiences while still allowing them access to all that the web has to offer," said Ryan Schoen, product manager for Chrome, in a blog post.