Reader Brian just sent this Email:
Mish,
I know this drives you nuts, too. What happened to Google Chrome blocking videos, ads etc.? They made all of this noise about Chrome now blocking obtrusive videos and advertisements. That seemed to be in effect for maybe 60 days. Now Chrome will play anything. Any obnoxious, dumb ass video that you CANNOT STOP, whether on desktop or the browser. I have searched around on what happened with the change to no avail, for at least a month. Did they reverse the change? What happened?
Thanks,
Brian
Worse Than Ever
Things are worse than ever before. A number of websites not only have auto-play ads, but you cannot even stop the damn videos until the ad plays.
I was thinking about this yesterday before Brian wrote. And this morning when I got up, my computer was plying two audios at once.
One trick that I have seen a lot of lately (and the one that struck this morning) is the “delayed attack”. After some period of time an autoplay video ad kicks in. I often have 50 links open at a time than have to go hunting around for the one causing the problem.
Why so many links open?
Many times I refer to several articles in one post. I accumulate as many a eight articles on a topic and narrow down when I start a post.
Flashback December 19, 2017
On December 19, 2017 I wrote Google Targets Bloomberg’s Autoplay Ads: Hooray!
Update on Better Ads
Google gave us this Update on Better Ads.
Google’s announcement stems from the Coalition for Better Ads report on Least Preferred Ad Experiences for Desktop and Mobile Web.
Chrome Changes You Try Yourself
When investigating Google’s cop-out today I came across a list of things you can do yourself from within Chrome, not requiring ad-blockers.
I just made these setting changes but have not tried them.
To make the above changes, cut and paste this into your browser: chrome://flags/#autoplay-policy
Meanwhile ….
Hello Google!
You promised to fix this. Things are now worse than ever.
What the hell is going on?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
This chrome browser is really good. link to browserreview.net
Also selling creditcard info and merchant transaction info to any internet company should be FORBIDDEN.
So nobody thinks I am just hating on Google I will say that Facebook should also be broken up to several different companies by government and likewise these companies should be FORBIDDEN to exchange information between them.
Facebook should be broken as follows:
Whatsapp and the ads run on that as one company.
Instagram and the ads run on that as one company.
3.Original Facebook and the ads run on that as one company.
Google had to hit their numbers to keep the stock goosed so Chrome started playing autoplay ads, most of which are run through Google Adsense and Doubleclikck aka Google itself since Google has monopoly like control of the market for ads placed on other websites.
It is easy when you control everything.
Google is WORSE than Standard Oil or any other monopoly ever was.
Google should be broken by government to several different companies FORBIDDEN to work together and FORBIDDEN to exchange any information between them and FORBIDDEN to track people among all of them.
Google should be broken as follows:
Google the search engine and ads run on google search as one company.
Youtube and the ads run on youtube as one
Google adsense and Doubleclick so all ads run by Google on other sites than Google and Youtube and Gmail as one.
4.Chrome and all the advertising money google gets when people search on Chrome as one.
Gmail and Gsuite and Google docs drive and calendar and all advertising on them run as one.
Android mobile operating system and all ad money google gets when people use android phones as one.
Google play and all of the huge money google gets from apps as one. Also as part of this Android giving a monopoly to google play should be stopped and there should be free competition among app stores.
Everything else Google owns like Zagat, ITA software, Google shopping, and all ads run on them as one.
Man, you have a lot of, always and everywhere unfounded, faith in Hillary Clinton, Hugo Chavez and similar creatures of government….
Use firefox and install an ad blocker. Google chrome is after-all a framework for google advertising and tracking. However don’t be surprised when certain web sites refuse to show you content because the adblocker is running.
In general the web has been ruined by over complicated wanky script technology that fouls slow connections and makes the whole browser experience tedious. It is a consequence of the new software engineering “think”. Where resources like CPU speed, network bandwidth and memory are considered infinite and optimization is something the compiler (or browser) must worry about – not the developer.
It is perhaps a consequence of the quality of IT degrees on offer, where the focus is on “data patterns” and programming is a Lego building exercise. Where the word algorithm has been replaced by the phrase “data pattern”, coined by a pretentious academia of real-world-ignorant Masters and PhDs.
Practical common sense and innovation are slowly giving way to rigid custom because its easier to hand out degrees if all the student has to do is remember some rules and no actual thinking is required.
Otherwise agree but Firefox is a mess and will crash and crash if you have many tabs open.
Chrome is based on Chromium open source project and the best option would be for someone to develop a Chrome like browser from Chromium without all the Google crap.
Right now I have 17 tabs open in 3 different copies of firefox and machine does not even show a hint of slowing down, let alone crash the browser. Its a Dell i5 with 8GB Ram and some light applications like excel, etc also open.
I think you are being generous when you talk about IT degrees. Seems like anyone who went to a 4 week “boot camp” is qualified to do web programming.
I remember when Computer Engineering was a serious discipline and required 4 years of study and up, but those days are long gone.
Back in the age of the legends, “computer science” was just a branch of mathematics……
You shouldn’t block ads on Mish’s site.
Support ALL creators and curators of good and original content.
Mish is definitely one such creator and curator.
It’s the inevitable result of all attempts at “middle ways,” as pointed out, albeit in a different context, by von Mises back in the 50s.
Being good, well indoctrinated progressives despite their considerable technical and engineering chops, most Googlers believe there is a meaningful difference between some autoplay ads, which are “bad,” and others, which are “good.” While, in reality, of course and obviously, over time, everyone who wants to autoplay ads, figures out what it takes to be deemed good.
The same dumbeffs also believe it’s important that some times, it’s good that some people can spy in you. Otherwise the Hobgblins come and do hobgoblin stuff like “terrorist funding” and “child porn” and other things the well indoctrinated are told to come clamoring to their rulers for protection from. But which in the end, of course, just means anyone can spy on you.
And they believe it’s “good” that some people can print money. Never mind all that means, is that everyone becomes part of the group that lives off of printed money, rather than bothering with producing anything. No money made. All money printed.
And why even the possibility of any amount of “gun control” at all, just means some are designated Robinson, others Friday. Some plantation owners, others niggas.
Etc. etc. There are no exceptions. Not now, not ever.
Ha! I thought I was the only one going bonkers over this. I’ve habitually killed audio for years at the first peep because of it.
what the hell happened to auto insurance goin down with your aging vehicle?not goin straight up in a vertical line 10-15% YOY with a perfect record?!What the hell happened to earning 6-7% on MMA,not .5%,what the hell happened to property taxes goin down as your home ages?Not goin up double digits YOY!What the hell happened to STABLE PRICES?every time I turn round the price just went up?
That’s not the only recent change for the worse with Chrome. Apparently they now force users to sign in while browsing, with very negative implications for privacy. Lucky for us Google would never dream of doing anything “evil” with user data!
Like some others here I’ve long used FF with NoScript, Ghostery, and ABP. NoScript requires real patience but in time you learn a lot about what scripts allow access to articles and forums, especially on news sites that tend to be run by the same small cadre of corporate owners. It’s sort of a game to figure out the bare minimum of scripts to allow while still enjoying your browsing experience.
“It’s sort of a game to figure out the bare minimum of scripts to allow while still enjoying your browsing experience.”
Yep, exactly. And, of course, I am very sure my screens don’t always appear they way that they might appear to someone else, but, that’s fine with me.
What happened? Do I have to explain everything? The changes to Chrome are Google’s measured response to the indefensible failure of the American voters to crown Hillary! as President.
That was a whole ship-load of wasted Google political contributions. The people need to pay!
Google needed to hit numbers so they turned the autoplay ads at Chrome on since Google gets most of the autoplay ad revenue due to Google adsense and Doubleclick being so dominant.
That autoplay ad money is 90% wasted but agencies convinced executives that autoplay is the best thing since sliced bread despite autoplay ads causing severe brand destruction since when one is forced to watch one autoplay ad from a brand they start thinking the brand is not good.
When one is forced to shut 50 tabs to kill one autoplay ad they start to actively hate that brand…
for desktop chrome, AdBlock is great for blocking specific elements on pages i frequent and uMatrix blocks nearly everything else which often requires temporary or permanent whitelisting to “see” what you want.
on android chrome, i use dns66 which works on non-rooted devices as long as chrome doesn’t break it (which it did recently so i stopped updating chrome on android…)
I use noscript and temporarily enable he obvious things until the site works (occasionally permanently enabling them if they are from known sites).
But that is under PaleMoon.
Firefox or IE can use AdBlockPlus (disable “some nonintrusive ads”), or uBlock, or Ghostery or others. The “Brave” browser blocks ads by default.
PaleMoon has similar ad-blockers and is basically a firefox fork.
Chrome? So you want every intimate detail of your life and all your passwords sent to Google?
i don’t think you can effectively fight every intimate detail of your life being sent to ***** if you choose to use any networked electronic device…or maybe i’m just paranoid
I tried NoScript and it killed some sites I needed. Don’t remember which ones but I think it was data feeds from BLS, BEA, etc
The problem with NoScript is that the fritter factor is high. You need to spend quite a bit of time figuring out exactly what to allow to get what you need, and what you can get away with blocking. The easiest thing is probably to start by allowing all sites that you don’t have a specific reason to believe are advertiser or video sites. If videos still play, block individual sites one at a time until you end up blocking the video.
I personally do the reverse, and block most things, only allowing what I have to to make specific web sites work, but that’s just me.
I use Firefox, and I use it in combination with Adblock Plus (blocks ads), Ghostery (blocks tracking), and No Script (blocks java). I whitelist some sites from Adblock Plus, including this one. I whitelist only a few from Ghostery. I block java in general, and allow it from selected sites, but never from known advertisers. This does mean that a lot of sites don’t work, though if I care, I can usually make them work satisfactorily. It does mean that I don’t get many ads, and I never, every have videos play. I also keep sound off. That means that if I actually (unlikely) want to see a video, I have to turn the sound on, and have to temporarily allow enough java to permit it.
As a fringe benefit, I get some added immunity to drive-by viruses.
I use those add ons, I find Chrome has zero tracking control and they change the screen settings and names all the time at any time an update installs. Remember google makes money off you using the product. Fingerprint test:
Very interesting, thanks. I rate “strong” on that test, but there are areas where I can improve.