Google is now letting web users pay a monthly fee to hide adverts from certain sites.
Advertising has long been the source of funding websites but Google is hoping to shake up the model with Contributor.
Google said the new feature is launching with 10 publishing partners, including Mashable, Imgur, WikiHow and Science Daily. When a user goes to the Google Contributor website (initial access is by invitation only), they see a list of the publishers that are participating in the beta version and they can choose whether they want to contribute $1, $2 or $3 a month.Google said the new feature is launching with 10 publishing partners, including Mashable, Imgur, WikiHow and Science Daily. When a user goes to the Google Contributor website (initial access is by invitation only), they see a list of the publishers that are participating in the beta version and they can choose whether they want to contribute $1, $2 or $3 a month.
So far Mashable, The Onion, Science Daily, Imgur, WikiHow, and Urban Dictionary are the only sites to be announced, although Google says these are just a few of the websites on board.
Adverts will be replaced with a simple 'Thank You' message when signed up to the service.
Google is currently on the lookout for more Contributors who want to be a part of the scheme, while web surfers can request an invitation to use it.The Google spokesperson who described the project said Contributor was another example of the company’s attempts to help web publishers and content companies monetize their readership more easily, along with similar experiments like Google Consumer Surveys, which allows websites to require that readers fill out a survey before they get access to content.
Earlier this year, Google also launched a contribution system for YouTube video creators called “Fan Funding,” which allows viewers to donate anywhere from $1 to $500 to the channel of their choice.
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