The Tech Bet

Want to get rid of ads? Pay Google a fee

Google offers a subscription service to remove ads from site
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Google offers a subscription service to remove ads from site

Google is now letting Web users pay a monthly fee to remove ads from sites.

The subscription service, called Google Contributor, asks users to pay $1 to $3 a month to remove advertising from partner sites on both desktop and mobile. Users who sign up for the service will see a "thank you" message from Google in the spot that the ad lived on the publishing site.

According to Tech Times, the ads and the thank you notes disappear altogether sometimes on mobile.

Right now, Google is testing the idea with 10 online publishers, including The Onion, ScienceDaily, Urban Dictionary and Mashable.

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Contributor is a relatively small experiment on behalf of Google, according to Colin Gillis, senior analyst at BGC Partners.

"But if you consider that Google is in the business of monetizing content, it makes sense to offer both subscription and ad-supported models." he said.

Web users can still get rid of ads using the free service AdBlock, but Google wants to give publishers some small subscription revenue through Contributor.

Earlier this month, Google announced a new subscription-based feature for its YouTube video service that would allow users to get music without having to see ads.