Google now recognizes that websites that play multimedia content without the user's consent are annoying and will be terminated by the owners.
The truth is that not many people own this kind of disturbing content, but those who do should understand that it is not right. Unfortunately, we often encounter user frustration with such practices as the site can provide other valuable information.
In short, every time we hear a sound in the background, we have to hunt down its source. It's even harder when a user has multiple tabs open from the same source.
There are several ways in which Google can address this issue, but a key step is to examine both users and the websites hosting the videos.
It might be easier for Google Chrome to stop playing videos altogether, but that would also break the website. So the video will play without sound. Also, the developers claim that the video will only play if the user is interested in viewing the media.
Google will also empower users to create rules for specific websites, as well as the ability to disable them entirely. While such options are usually well hidden, this time that is not the case.
The new settings will appear in Canary, Development, and Beta in the coming months and will be available to the general public in January 2018.
It remains to be seen how many users will activate the new options.
