Google plans to enable a new security feature in Chrome 64 Stable that protects users from several forms of unwanted redirects on the Internet.

Unwanted redirects come in many forms, but they all have in common that users are redirected to web pages they did not request.

Google discovered that these redirects come often from third-party scripts embedded in those sites; in fact, Ghacks' mobile site experienced such a issue just recently where Google ads redirected users to a different site.

"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"

Google Chrome will display a notification in the browser UI if content on a web page attempted to redirect to another page or content starting in Chrome 64. The redirection happens when users interacted with the content that is responsible for the redirection.

Google plans to address another issue related to unwanted redirects, this one in Chrome 65. This particular form of unwanted redirection happens after user actions, for instance the click on a button or link.

Sites that implement these technologies may open the destination of the link or button in a new tab, and load other content in the active tab the user sees at the time.

Google Chrome 65 will display a notification in the browser UI when it detects that sites have that behavior, effectively blocking it.

The company acknowledges that other forms of abusive redirection behavior exist that are harder to detect.

"These include links to third-party websites disguised as play buttons or other site controls, or transparent overlays on websites that capture all clicks and open new tabs or windows."

Google announced previously that Chrome will come with an improved popup-blocker that prevents these scenarios.

Chrome users who don't want to wait this long can enable the new unwanted redirection protection right now in Chrome:

1.Load chrome://flags/#enable-framebusting-needs-sameorigin-or-usergesture in the browser's address bar.
2.Switch the status of the "Framebusting requires same-origin or a user gesture" experimental flag from default to enabled.
3.Restart the Chrome browser.

Webmasters may check the Abusive Experiences Report that Google added to its search console for webmasters to find out if Google detected any violations on sites.

Closing Words

It is about time that browser makers do something about unwanted redirection and other abusive behavior on the Internet. It is not without irony that Google announced these changes, considering that the company's Adsense/Adwords division allows ad scripts with this abusive behavior on its network (allows meaning that these scripts run on sites).