Google Tackles One of the Most Annoying Problems on the Internet

Google Tackles One of the Most Annoying Problems on the Internet

A Google logo is seen at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, California
STEPHEN LAM
By Millie Dent

We’ve all been there: You’re surfing the Web and all of a sudden voices start coming out of nowhere. Quickly, you scramble to figure out which browser tab the autoplay media is coming from, and click around wildly trying to silence the offending intrusion. 

If only there were some way to prevent such sonic irritations. According to Google, now there is

Finally recognizing the problem of background audio from a video or ad that starts playing in a tab you’re not using, Google Chrome is now offering a solution. While Chrome already provided an icon that told you which tab was playing the audio, new versions of the browser let you mute the tabs with one click. And it gets even better. 

Related: If You’re Reading This, Your Browser Could Be Hacked 

Chrome will no longer automatically play media from backgrounded tabs unless you actually visit the tab. Not only does this feature reduce the annoyance of unwanted sound and trying to figure out where it’s coming from, but according to Google it will also conserve power. Chrome will consume less of your battery by playing only the videos and ads in the visible tab. 

Take a (silent) bow, Google. You’ve earned it. 

Top Reads From The Fiscal Times

GOP Tax Cuts Getting Less Popular, Poll Finds

A congressional aide places a placard on a podium for the House Republican's legislation to overhaul the tax code on Capitol Hill in Washington
JOSHUA ROBERTS/Reuters
By The Fiscal Times Staff

Friday marked the six-month anniversary of President Trump’s signing the Republican tax overhaul into law, and public opinion of the law is moving in the wrong direction for the GOP. A Monmouth University survey conducted earlier this month found that 34 percent of the public approves of the tax reform passed by Republicans late last year, while 41 percent disapprove. Approval has fallen by 6 points since late April and disapproval has slipped 3 points. The percentage of people who aren’t sure how they feel about the plan has risen from 16 percent in April to 24 percent this month.

Other findings from the poll of 806 U.S. adults:

  • 19 percent approve of the job Congress is doing; 67 percent disapprove
  • 40 percent say the country is heading in the right direction, up from 33 percent in April
  • Democrats hold a 7-point edge in a generic House ballot

Special Tax Break Zones Defined for All 50 States

Workers guide steel beams into place at a construction site in San Francisco, California September 1, 2011.  REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
© Robert Galbraith / Reuters
By Michael Rainey

The U.S. Treasury has approved the final group of opportunity zones, which offer tax incentives for investments made in low-income areas. The zones were created by the tax law signed in December.

Bill Lucia of Route Fifty has some details: “Treasury says that nearly 35 million people live in the designated zones and that census tracts in the zones have an average poverty rate of about 32 percent based on figures from 2011 to 2015, compared to a rate of 17 percent for the average U.S. census tract.”

Click here to explore the dynamic map of the zones on the U.S. Treasury website. 

Map of the Day: Affordable Care Act Premiums Since 2014

FILE PHOTO: A sign on an insurance store advertises Obamacare in San Ysidro
MIKE BLAKE
By The Fiscal Times Staff

Axios breaks down how monthly premiums on benchmark Affordable Care Act policies have risen state by state since 2014. The average increase: $481.

Obamacare Repeal Would Lead to 17.1 Million More Uninsured in 2019: Study

A small group of demonstrators stand outside of of a hotel before former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, president of the The Heritage Foundation, speaks at a "Defund Obamacare Tour" rally in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.  August 26, 2013.  REUTERS/Nate
© Nathan Chute / Reuters
By The Fiscal Times Staff

A new analysis by the Urban Institute finds that if the Affordable Care Act were eliminated entirely, the number of uninsured would rise by 17.1 million — or 50 percent — in 2019. The study also found that federal spending would be reduced by almost $147 billion next year if the ACA were fully repealed.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney speaks about the budget at the White House in Washington
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
By Michael Rainey

Mick Mulvaney has been running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since last November, and by all accounts the South Carolina conservative is none too happy with the agency charged with protecting citizens from fraud in the financial industry. The Hill recently wrote up “five ways Mulvaney is cracking down on his own agency,” and they include dropping cases against payday lenders, dismissing three advisory boards and an effort to rebrand the operation as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection — a move critics say is intended to deemphasize the consumer part of the agency’s mission.

Mulvaney recently scored a small victory on the last point, changing the sign in the agency’s building to the new initials. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does not exist,” Mulvaney told Congress in April, and now he’s proven the point, at least when it comes to the sign in his lobby (h/t to Vox and thanks to Alan Zibel of Public Citizen for the photo, via Twitter).