The Audio Disruption Vector
While browsing with dozens of tabs open, it is incredibly jarring when a website suddenly begins blasting a video advertisement or an auto-playing podcast. Finding the specific tab responsible, navigating to the page, and locating the tiny pause button within the media player is frustrating and slow. In older versions of Chrome, you could simply click the speaker icon on the tab itself, but Google has since removed that capability in favour of a more persistent, site-wide audio control mechanism.
How to Mute an Entire Website
You can instruct Chrome to permanently block all audio output from a specific domain, ensuring that no page on that website will ever make a sound again.
1. Open Google Chrome.
2. When a tab starts playing unwanted audio, a tiny speaker icon will appear on the right side of that specific tab.
3. Right-click on the tab itself (do not left-click, and do not try to click the speaker icon directly).
4. A context menu will drop down. Select Mute site from this list.
5. The speaker icon on the tab will immediately change to a crossed-out speaker, and all audio will cease.
This setting is persistent. Even if you close the tab, restart the browser, and visit a different page on the exact same website three weeks later, Chrome will remember your preference and forcefully silence the media. To reverse this, simply right-click any tab from that website again and select Unmute site.