Having revealed in 2012 that it would be producing its own 3MS viewability standard for online display ads, Google has now made a purchase in the space.

London-based spider.io, which identifies when display ads are legitimately being seen by human visitors, is the company being bought.

Google says that it will now be including spider.io’s fraud detection technology in its video and display ad products alongside what is already in place. It is hoped that the move will ‘weed out bad actors and improve the entire digital ecosystem’.

The seven-strong team at spider.io is headed up by CEO Douglas de Jager, chief architect Ashley Brown and chief customer officer Vergard Johnson.

Commenting back in October 2012 when Spider.io was launched, de Jager said, ‘In an industry of smoke and mirrors, we aim to be transparent.

‘We have built the industry’s first comprehensive viability measurement technology and we encourage all prospective partners to confirm our bold claim for themselves.’

More on Google’s UK deals:

• Google Ventures invests in cloud company

Speaking in Google’s DoubleClick advertising blog, Neal Mohan, vice president for display advertising at Google, comments, ‘Advertising helps fund the digital world we love today – inspiring videos, informative websites, entertaining apps and services that connect us with friends around the world.

‘But this vibrant ecosystem only flourishes if marketers buy media online with the confidence that their ads are reaching real people, that results they see are based on actual interest.’

Google has now made two British acquisitions during 2014, with the other involving the purchase of artificial intelligence business DeepMind Technologies for a reported £400 million. The California-based listed firm also closed a $3.2 billion deal involving connected devices and home automation company Nest in January.