Ok, so things got personal now. Google has shut down one of the most popular extensions for all Chrome users using a malware excuse. To be honest, this was one of my favorite extensions and RAM-saver tools which I was using for over 3 years and making me and my other 53409584+ tabs happy. So, what happened, and why was the extension disabled?! In this article, we will go thru each step, side and excuse, and analyze what happened, and was the extension a real threat for us, users.
#1 What is The Great Suspender?!
For those who are still not aware of what is or, was The Great Suspender – long story short. If your desktop device has 8 or less GB of RAM, it is not recommended to open a vast amount of tabs in the Chrome browser, since it consumes a lot of memory and you will run out of it for other software, such as Adobe Suite programs. But, what does The Great Suspender is allowing users to open the same huge amount of Chrome tabs, and putting to sleep the ones that were not using recently – which saves you RAM that can be used for other apps and software. But that’s not all – lower fluctuations of RAM usage keep your device healthy and happy.
#2 Extension Issue in Chronological Order
Now, everything was great and everyone was happy about these features. Even though the extension was not the only one that serves as a tab suspender in Chrome, it was yet the most popular one due to maintenance and updates it received. Speaking of updates, everything began with them:
In November 2020, a thread on Github was released, where users announced some malicious code the extension contained, and that it was removed from the Play Store for this exact reason. The malicious code tracked website data from users and was respectively breaking the law. But, why did the extension suddenly started to track user data?! Well, in June 2020, the extension was sold to an unknown third party, which respectively used the 7.1.8 update to implement the malicious code.
Later, in version 7.1.9 the tracker was removed, but people continued to explore the subject and write insightful stuff about The Great Suspender issues and data breach that no one was happy about.
In January 2021, the subject became popular in many resources such as Reddit and Twitter, and draw the attention of big brothers from Google, who took a decision regarding the extension and its future.
#3 What’s next, suspender fans?
The decision Google took in regard to The Great Suspender, was to disable the extension for good due to the malware situation and the entire noise around it. So, if you are too disappointed and seeking a new and same effectiveness tab suspender, there are several solutions you can try.
We are not willing to give names or recommend directly a tool, but you can dig into the Web Store, and select one based on reviews, features, and consumption. There are not so many tools available after all, but still, you have something to choose from, right?!
