Gadgetory

Google invented a way to block its own ads seriously I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update would you pay a subscription to remove ads from web pages Google a company that makes most of its money from advertising is testing a service that lets you block ads for a small monthly fee between one and three dollars it's called google contributor when you visit a participating website the ads are replaced with a thank-you note and a portion of your subscription fee is shared with that website right now only 10 sites are participating and you can try it out unless you are invited to the test if it seems totally crazy that Google would block its own ads consider the following google may be coming up with a solution to micro payments the idea that you can support the site you like by throwing in a few cents into the tip jar when you visit it's not practical for you to give ten cents here and ten cents there because transaction processing fees eat all that up with this google is handling the tips in bulk also Google's testing an ad free paid music service on youtube if we get used to pain small bits for ad free music maybe in years it won't seem so strange to pay for ad free websites but we're a long way from that now while Google goes ad free Amazon could be heading in the opposite direction the New York Post reports that Amazon may offer ad-supported video streaming and it could be cheaper than netflix this would be something separate from the Amazon Prime instant video service you get with the 100-dollar yearly subscription now it's not often you hear about innovation with cable operators but perhaps comcast has come up with a way to make appointments less annoying the comcast my account app will alert customers with scheduled appointments when the technician is about a half hour away and you can track them on a map you'll also get alerts if they're running late comcast is first testing this in the Boston area now before we end there's quite a bit of innovation happening in the smart home space right now but not all of the technology is quite perfect and just yet to see what I mean you should check out our review of the ubi it's a smart speaker that's designed to answer your voice commands think of it as a Serie on your wall but you can turn on your home appliances as well as get answers to questions okay ubi turn heater on till then turn all that dropout it didn't work yeah voice recognition isn't at the star track computer level just yet that your tech news update for cnet in New York I'm Bridget Carey