Disabling Video Auto-Play (A How-To)
I have been complaining forever about news sites that auto-play their annoying videos when you click on an article. The problem has become more pronounced in recent months, apparently because videos are a huge money-maker for news sites (apparently young people prefer watching them to reading.)
Finally, I found a way around them and it's easy in all browsers.
Firefox:
- Type "about:config" into your URL bar.
- A warning will come up - dismiss it
- An alphabetical list will come up of various processes. Scroll down to "plugins.click_to_play". Right click on it and choose "toggle." Restart Firefox.
That's it. the next time an article with a video comes up, it will look like like the one below. If you want to watch it, just click on it. [More...]
For Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer, see here.
The major TV news sites are the biggest culprits, and now our local 9 News in Denver has joined them. I no longer read any of them. It's like nails scratching a chalkboard to be peacefully reading the news and have some news anchor come blaring through your computer.
Memo to media sites: Even though I have figured out how to stop your annoying auto-play of videos, I will continue to waste a half-hour of my time (if that's what it takes) searching for a similar news article without the video to avoid linking to your site and sending unsuspecting readers to you. Nor do I want you to get the added traffic. Your unwanted intrusion on my and other readers' senses will not be rewarded with a traffic hit, at least not from this site.
One other suggestion for readers. You can block news sites in your settings on Google News so articles by certain sites don't come up.
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