Advertisements are critical to Google’s economic strategy, as they are frequently used to deliver the company’s products without charging customers. This extends to Gmail, where a growing number of people have seen an increase in ad displays.
Ads were first added to Google’s mobile applications a decade ago, and they have remained ever since, occasionally altering with new places and appearances. For many years, Gmail has continuously shown advertisements. However, it appears that Google has increased the frequency of advertising displayed in Gmail, both on mobile devices and the web, in recent days.
Google has begun to display advertisements within the “Updates” filter of Gmail’s inbox. This automatic filter is specifically designed to gather emails connected to orders, specialized promotions, billing statements, and other pertinent information.
Historically, this filter was regarded as the most useful of the default settings (including “Promotions” and “Social”) because it was ad-free for an extended period of time. But that is changing today as Gmail has begun putting two adverts at the top of the “Updates” tab, replicating the advertising approach of other tabs.
Ads are also being integrated into the list of emails under different tabs on the desktop by Gmail, albeit they are not currently displayed in the main inbox.
There is no obvious new setting to customize the placement of adverts in inbox lists, thus it is unclear whether this change is being rolled out to all users. Regardless, the general consensus among users appears to be very negative, which is expected given the circumstances.