Q: I always have several tabs open, oftentimes in several windows. What's really irritating is when one of those tabs starts making noise and I have to stop what I'm doing to click through them all, one by one, to find the offender. How can I get around this?
A: I think we've all probably been there. If you ever has as many windows and tabs open as I do (always dozens, sometimes more) in your browser of choice, then you've definitely been there. You're reading a story or you're watching a video and, all of a sudden, one of your tabs starts making noise. How irritating. Now you have to wait for the noisy offender -- usually a video advertisement -- to play out or you have to go through each tab, one at a time, on the hunt.
MuteTab, a new Chrome extension designed by Jared Sohn, helps you find the problem and shut it down. The extension works by detecting which of your open tabs contain plugins, Java applets and/or HTML 5 audio/video -- all potential offenders -- and allowing you to mute them by calling up a right-click menu. Or you can shut down the plugin entirely, though this could potential restart Flash-based games or lead to other unforeseen irritations.
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Image: MuteTab.
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