Do you open countless tabs at once? If you are into multi-tabs, you've probably come across this problem more than once: there's music or sound coming from somewhere, but you have no idea which site is making that noise. Try as you might, it's hard to find the ad or video that's being entirely disruptive. YouTube is finally doing something about this issue.

The YouTube Play Icon

YouTube can't do this for every tab that you have open, but the company has solved problems issuing from YouTube sites. Now, when you open up a YouTube page, you will see a small 'Play' icon directly in the tab. So, if you get buried underneath a bunch of tabs, you can click through to see if a YouTube page is open and making all of that noise simply by looking at the tab.

Not knowing where sound is coming from is such a big issue that YouTube isn't the only company working on a play and noise solution. Google is also working on solving this problem by working something similar into Chrome. Rumor has it that Google is adding a Play button that looks just like the one YouTube has added, but Google's play button will appear in all Chrome tabs. Soon, very soon, you will be able to tell where noise is coming from.

Available Now

The new YouTube Play button is currently available to all YouTube users. Since YouTube videos automatically play when clicked on, it can be hard to tell where noise is coming from sometimes. Unfortunately, the Play button is the only button you will see in the YouTube tab. You can't click on this button to stop music, and no other buttons appear (no pause or stop).

Google may be building Stop or Pause buttons into Chrome, though. But, for now, the YouTube tab icons are the first to appear, and that's a great feature for many YouTube users - especially if three or more open pages simultaneously are the norm. At the moment, there aren't really any good ways to stop automatic audio play. But, you can shut down the sound coming from your computer. I know, not a really great solution to the problem, but it's a solution all the same.

Are Play Icons New?

After reading through some comments about the new YouTube tabs this morning, I have to wonder if Play icons are really a new thing. Some Firefox users have reported seeing these icons weeks ago, so it might not be the case that Play icons are a new occurrence. However, the new Play icons are new where YouTube is concerned, and that's a helpful thing for those that aren't using Firefox, or don't see this feature.

A Play button when using YouTube might not seem like a necessity, but it's easy to get lost when you have multiple pages open. Now, you can find out if something is playing on a YouTube page that you've forgotten about - it's a win-win situation, and it seems like it's a problem both YouTube and Chrome are trying to solve.