Google revealed on Thursday that it sidelined more than 780 million ads deemed rude, dishonest or dangerous in 2015 in a leap from the 524 million targeted a year earlier.
"Some ads are just plain bad -- like ads that carry malware, cover up content you're trying to see, or promote fake goods," Google senior vice president of ads and commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy said in a blog post.
"Bad ads can ruin your entire online experience, a problem we take very seriously."
Google has a team of more than 1,000 people around the world devoted to fighting "bad ads," and has armed them with sophisticated technology, according to Ramaswamy.
Google disables ads for violating the California-based Internet giant's policies.
More than 10,000 websites and 18,000 accounts were suspended for hawking counterfeit goods such as designer watch knock-offs, and Google blocked more than 12.5 million healthcare-related ads that included offering drugs that were approved for use or made claims that weren't properly supported.
Weight-loss scams were among top complaints by Google users last year, and the company responded by suspending more than 30,000 websites for making misleading claims, Ramaswamy said.
Google also blocked nearly 7,000 "phishing" websites crafted to looked like online pages of legitimate businesses such as banks but intended to trick people into entering passwords or other personal information.
"We got even tougher on ads that mislead or trick people into interacting with them -- like ads designed to look like system warnings from your computer," Ramaswamy said.
"In 2015 alone we rejected more than 17 million."
Google vowed to ramp the war on bad online ads this year. It also said it will increase defenses against malicious software and computer networks known as "bots" programmed to automatically click online ads to drive up revenue from pay-per-click marketing messages.
GMT 19:38 2018 Saturday ,13 January
Facebook joins Europol talks to fight Islamist propagandaGMT 10:23 2018 Wednesday ,03 January
Launch of bird collision avoidance system will save lives, moneyGMT 18:36 2018 Monday ,01 January
WhatsApp messaging service returns after global outageGMT 16:56 2017 Wednesday ,27 December
Hamilton apologises for criticising dress-wearing nephewGMT 19:06 2017 Tuesday ,26 December
Six Arab Instagram stars get their very own three-part reality showGMT 17:46 2017 Monday ,25 December
China shuts down more than 13,000 websites in past three yearsGMT 09:50 2017 Monday ,25 December
Artist 'released' in China after Liu Xiaobo tributeGMT 08:56 2017 Monday ,25 December
Where's Santa? US-Canadian military command tracking St NickMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor