Google Chrome to block auto-playing Flash ads starting September 1:
Google has a set a date of September 1 for when its Chrome browser will block all Flash content that isn't "central to the webpage." Flash content, such as ads or auto-playing videos on non-video websites, will be automatically paused by default but you can click to play them if you wish. Embedded video players on sites like YouTube and Vimeo will still work, of course.
Auto playing videos have become a bane of the internet and users all over the world are not happy.
While they might certainly help websites make more money, are the ads really working? Are people really clicking on the ads rushing to third party sites to spend money on products they didn’t want in the first place?
Indeed, many scrutinize the relevance of these ads at all. But that doesn’t matter, because it appears they are here to stay.
Google, though, has come up with a tool that might help you avoid the annoyance. The technology company has announced a new feature in Google Chrome which will only play what you are looking at and now whatever is open in the background.
“This means no more ‘Where’s that sound coming from?’ moments when an ad for instance decides to autoplay in a tab you’ve specifically opened in the background,” explains software engineer and Chrome evangelist Francois Beaufort.
Indeed, this will be a wonderful addition, particularly for people who like to have multiple windows open at the same time.
He goes on to say, “This cool feature prevents obvious user annoyance but also conserves power as Chrome will only consume power once the tab is foregrounded.”
Of course, this move is going to make web users consumers happy but probably will have the opposite effect on advertisers. A significant number of web advertisers still use Flash to make their ads. As a matter of fact, a rectn Sizmek report claims that advertisers try to delver nearly 5.4 billion Flash ads every year.
Writing on the
official Google Chrome Blog, Google's Tommi Li explains that this new feature is all about battery life: Flash animations still consume a large amount of CPU time, which in turn slurps down some of your laptop's vital lithium juice. By "intelligently" pausing any Flash elements that aren't central to the surfing experience which is essentially a euphemism for "ads" mobile users may experience a non-negligible boost in battery life.
The "important plug-in content" change was rolled out to
the beta channel of Google Chrome today, and will percolate down to the stable channel of Chrome "soon" probably in about six weeks.
In our brief testing, the "important plug-in content" feature seemed to do a good job of blocking Flash ads, including a Flash ad at the top of the YouTube homepage. Rather than blocking Flash elements entirely, the feature pauses the ads before they begin; you can then hit a "play" button if you want to see the ad (or if Chrome accidentally pauses the wrong Flash elements). It's not clear if the new feature blocks other Flash-based content, such as cookies.
© 2015 ,Copyright by Bilal Asghar