Yes, the dumbest thing you can do is annoying the user, that's what started the ad-blocking revolution, what a bunch of idiots. I still wonder when browsers are going to implement a way to block auto-play.
I agree. I also don't see how they can at the same time block annoying and intrusive advertisements in their browser by default. How could both projects coexist?
It also makes me wonder why browsers can't control auto-play like they could with Flash, was this perhaps done deliberately?
Yes we know about that, but these extensions don't always work correctly, and they can't completely stop videos from running in the back ground, they mostly just hide them.
I am pretty sure of it, after all, it was Google, which begged for flash to go away, after it kept loosing millions because of click-to-play flash AD blockers. This article only confirms it. Even if it would work properly, it does not prevents malicious code from downloading, it blocks it afterwards and that can be easily bypassed, thus it fails all the time.
These extensions only pauses the videos. And like @TairikuOkami stated above, if someone were to exploit it, the extension won't save you from malware.
I honestly am waiting for someone to misuse this autoplay "feature" to spread malware. So that they'd finally provide click to play option like they used to with Flash.
HTML5 is way more dangerous/powerful than flash. Malware in HTML5 vs flash is the same like in Linux vs Windows. Flash is still the most commonly used platform, thus more targeted.
I was talking about the source video itself, but I guess you're right about the potential danger for malicious HTML5 code. I've always thought of HTML5 videos to be "simple", as in like directly linked to the MP4/MKV itself with minimal code, but never considered how that code can be manipulated.
I'm sick of video. Some of us still know how to read. I wonder how much internet bandwidth is wasted on auto-playing videos nobody wants to see.
I believe the W3C and other browser developers like Mozilla should take charge and demand that "click to play" can be enforced by browsers. Totally forgot about wasted bandwidth, good point.
