Google has announced a new experimental service called Contributor. It's a crowdfunding tool for publishers. Instead of showing ads to visitors on websites, the new system asks those who use Contributor to pay a monthly subscription fee that will in turn contribute to the running costs of the site, meaning that they no longer have to put up with targeted, and what are sometimes considered to be distracting or invasive, adverts.
Initial access to the Google Contributor website is by invitation only, where users will be able to opt to pay the sites that they visit a monthly fee of $1, $2 or $3. However, as The Verge points out, it is unclear if Google is taking a cut, or if users will need to donate that much per site they visit.
Google has only announced a handful of 'Contributor' partners today which include; Mashable, The Onion, Science Daily, Imgur, WikiHow, and Urban Dictionary. The Mountain View search giant claims that the above sites only represent a "few" of its partnering sites but failed to mention who else is taking part at this stage.
Users can support only the websites and publishers whose sites they visit frequently, and perhaps Google is bidding on the new service to help consumers recognise that website content has to be paid for in one way or another. Those who donate will see a thank you message from the publisher replacing the usual advertising blocks and banners from Google, and the aim of the service is to help web publishers and content companies' monetise their readership more easily.
The move is a pretty surprising one from Google, given how much of its business revenue is based upon online advertising. As one of the heaviest heavyweights on the web though, if anyone can make this voluntary contribution system 'experiment' work then Google can.
