Google’s Chrome Will Auto-pause Flash Ads Starting September 1
Flash, it was nice knowing you. The demise of the once ever-present multimedia platform draws nearer with Google’s decision to automatically pause “many” Flash ads in its web browser Chrome.
Chrome won’t pause all Flash content — for example, a Flash video you’re trying to watch will not be paused, but the surrounding Flash content (usually ads) will. If you want to look at a piece of Flash content that was paused, you can click on it and start it manually.
The change, originally announced in June and enabled for beta users, goes into effect for everyone Sept. 1, Google announced Thursday.
The feature already exists in Chrome; you can turn it on in the browser’s “Advanced settings,” under “Content settings,” by choosing the “Detect and run important plugin content” option. The change going into effect Sept 1. will be that this feature will be turned on by default.
The new option should speed up page loading and reduce Chrome’s memory (over)consumption, which is a growing problem for Google’s web browser.
For those wanting to go a step further, try a Chrome plugin called The Great Suspender, which completely disables unused Chrome tabs until you choose to re-enable them.
As for Flash, the change in Chrome’s behavior is just another cut that’s making the security-flaw-ridden platform less relevant and, hopefully, soon obsolete.