The Chrome team at Google is experimenting with a setting that will allow site visitors to mute and unmute a website directly from the "info bubble" on the page.
"This will give you more control about which website is allowed to throw sound at you automatically," Francois Beaufort, Chromium evangelist at Google, wrote in a Google+ post.
The feature already exists in Chrome Canary, an experimental version of the browser, and has several options such as camera, Flash, microphone and popups. A new option for sound will be added, which will enable users to mute or unmute a website.
Once the website is muted, it will not automatically play the sound on the videos until unmuted.
Silencing sound in a video on a website isn't new. Facebook has been doing it for some time. The biggest innovation in this experiment involves the Chrome browser, which Google has been making more intelligent. The ability to mute and unmute the video is dependent on the browser, not the website.
My computer keyboard has an audio mute, too. I must be the only one.
One wonders what discount to the ad ratecard will be applied for muted ads. As they say ... muted is neutered.