The solution I've found is just to disable javascript altogether, then manually whitelist a small number of sites that don't work without js. Sure, a lot of the web stops working for me, but it's also probably the part of the web I don't want to see anymore anyway.
Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
151–160 of 248 posts
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#152This is weird. They see the general tech community slowly turning against them and they double down on all the wrong things they were doing that caused the negativity.
The only tech people that matter much to Google are the ones who work for them, and considering that there will always be one person saying "I work for Google and here's why I think this is A-ok" on every thread like this, suggests that demographic is still in their pocket. See the top comment on this post.
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can turn off GIF animation in Chrome, you are still downloading the giantass GIF. Slowing down canvas repaints if one of your overall goals is web applications that have feature and performance parity with desktop ones is, I think, unlikely. I'm a bit more surprised Google (and all browser vendors) aren't more proactive in just killing off animated GIFs.
Except animated GIFs are the only way to have embedded "video" in Google Slides. (Yes, you can technically "embed" YouTube videos, but they play in the YouTube player with all of its chrome and only in widescreen with letterboxing if your aspect ratio doesn't fit)
Both are made by Google so this feels like one of the easier things Google can fix. Twitter and FB are essentially aGIF-less and they don't even make popular browsers!
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I've turned my wife, daughter, and Mom, none of whom are tech oriented at all, into Brave converts on mobile.
Unfortunately, that helps exactly zilch. Brave, along with all other Blink/Chromium based browsers and frameworks, further entrenches Chrome as the platform. Either use Firefox on Android or give up. For desktop, you have at least Firefox, Otter Browser, and Epiphany as options.
I'm a browser junkie. I have about 20 browsers installed in my macOS - some Firefox-based, some Google-based, others weird little ones, and of course Safari.
I really try to support everything that exists, especially non-Chrome.
And yet, I am not excited to download Otter Browser. Its website and SourceForge (i.e. the very fact they're using Sourceforge) do not inspire confidence that they're not modern and up-to-date enough to actually be safe to even use (browser attack surface is massive). Am I wrong in translating this first impression to a judgement on safety?
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then maybe the solution is to also have the option turn off animated GIFs and perhaps frequent canvas repaints too; and not simply give up completely ! In any case, just leaving the option alone so at least it has some effect like it did before, would still be better than essentially a full surrender.
This is the common sense solution. And what sites are replacing videos with massive gifs? Buzzfeed-like sites have always been filling their pages with 250 megabytes of gifs. News sites with half a dozen autoplaying videos certainly won't be replacing their videos with multi-gigabyte gif versions. And it seems like detecting a large, constantly repainted canvas would be easy enough.
I dream of a search engine that heavily penalizes websites with advertisements on it.
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#156This thread is a microcosm of the problems with the world at large atm. 70% of the response are people frothing at the mouth outrages over those evil "other people" when the other people had nothing but good intentions. Then absolutely refusing to see those good intentions and painting everything as poorly as possible.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
The road to heaven is also paved with bad ones.
(megachurch pastor conmen)
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#157I consider browser video autoplay more offensive than physical assault tbh.
Browser autoplay doesn't have the real-world consequence of needing medical attention and going thousands of dollars into debt.
> going thousands of dollars into debt
That is the case for only a single country in the whole world
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
BigG couldn't do that (disable other user hostile media) because it would interfere with ads. Now I'm looking for a gif and canvas blocker for FF mobile. Any hints on how to tune uBO?
You can just block all tags with a `##canvas` rule for uBlock Origin. It of course breaks some real sites, but not on anything I use regularly. A canvas repaint rate limit could be nice, though I have been surprised at how little I notice all canvas tags just being blocked. Gifs are trickier. I'll often see non-animated images in gif format. Because of extension API limitations, uBO can't block gifs based on file siz…
Gifs are trickier. I'll often see non-animated images in gif format. uBO doesn't have the power to block images based on file size. (The file size isn't even known until the start of the fetch)
Browsers' native functionality (if not deliberately crippled) and filtering proxies can definitely block animated GIFs while leaving static ones alone, by simply terminating the connection after the first frame.
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#159(disclaimer: I work at Google, not on Chrome) The rationale here seems to be that by blocking video autoplay, Chrome incentivized sites shipping huge animated GIFs, or decoding video in JS and painting to canvas, both of which are very suboptimal for users. Another comment points to this issue: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=106364... quote: Unfortunately, full autoplay blocking is counter prod…
Then maybe the solution is to also have the option turn off animated GIFs and perhaps frequent canvas repaints too; and not simply give up completely ! In any case, just leaving the option alone so at least it has some effect like it did before, would still be better than essentially a full surrender.
> Then maybe the solution is to also have the option turn off animated GIFs
Here's a hammer Google has used before to make other websites tow their line: Peanlize their search rankings.
Re: Google has removed the option to disable autoplay from Mobile Chrome
#160(disclaimer: I work at Google, not on Chrome) The rationale here seems to be that by blocking video autoplay, Chrome incentivized sites shipping huge animated GIFs, or decoding video in JS and painting to canvas, both of which are very suboptimal for users. Another comment points to this issue: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=106364... quote: Unfortunately, full autoplay blocking is counter prod…
Other then tracking and toy games what are legitimate use cases for canvas on big sites?