Jan. 15–Q: Ads are fine. People get bored and actually click on interesting stuff all the time …. The problem is the AUTO-PLAY ads. They slow the page down to a crawl and eventually lock up the page. There ALWAYS needs to be a way to turn off auto-play ads. They don't work on many of the devices or service providers. True Story. ~ Doug, Indianapolis
Tech+ Good news Doug, Google is on it! In fact, the company is rolling out an update this month to its Chrome browser to stifle annoying auto-playing video ads. Auto-play ads will still exist but Chrome will only let the video run if it's muted or the user has expressed interest in the site.
According to the Google Chromium blog, the update "will allow auto-play to occur when users want media to play, and respect users' wishes when they don't."
It's part of Google's push to support the Coalition for Better Ads (mentioned in an earlier Tech+), an industry group that realized digital ads were being ignored because too many people have ad-blockers. (Other things the group is trying to cut down on are pop-up ads, full-screen ads and "countdown" ads that force a user to wait before continuing.)
The Chrome team is also working on a "button" to mute videos right in the browser. The idea is a user selects the "Secure" button right before the website address and a drop-down list of options appear, including a toggle to turn off sound.
But as of Friday, Google hasn't released this Chrome 64 update yet. Expect it in January, according to Google.
In the meantime, for Chrome users, you can turn off auto-play ads by tweaking a setting in Chrome:
1. Open Chrome and type this in the URL area: chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy
2. Select "Document User Activation is required"
3. Restart Chrome. Auto-play should now be paused.
For non-Chrome users:
* FireFox users: Type "about:config" in the address bar and hit Enter; in search bar, type "autoplay" to filter options; double click and switch value from true to false. Details are on Firefox's support page at support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1141200
* Facebook: To disable auto-play videos in Facebook, go to your user settings, find "Videos" and turn off the "Auto-Play Videos" feature.
* Microsoft Edge: You can disable Flash-based ads by turning off the built-in Flash plugin. Go to "Settings," then "Advanced Settings," and turn off "Use Adobe Flash Player." This, however, may also turn off the ability to view certain videos.
More answers and tips from myself and readers are always in the weekly Tech+ newsletter. Sign up, see past Tech+ answers or ask your own tech question at dpo.st/mailbag. If you're emailing your question, please add "Mailbag" to the subject line.
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