Today, many Chromium browser users may find an extension missing, RAM usage increased, or suspended tabs lost, after the removal of one of the most popular Google Chrome extensions, The Great Suspender, from the Chrome Web Store.
@googlechrome #news The popular extension, which I use(d) myself, @greatsuspender, has been kicked off the web store as the latest version contains #malware. The extension hibernates tabs in the background to reduce RAM usage.
— Nathan Davies (@NDavies_02) February 4, 2021
A story by GHacks from early January reports the extension was sold by the original developer to an unknown entity – who later submitted version 7.1.8 of the extension to the Web Store – but not to GitHub – despite the extension being open source. Many took a closer look at this extension, finding it to be modified with an analytics script and code that made remote calls, raising concerns.
As of it’s removal, the extension reached version 7.1.9 on the Chrome Web Store – however, it was removed from the Microsoft Edge store at version 7.1.8 in November 2020.
A fork of the last safe version, 7.1.6, titled The Marvellous Suspender, has been published on the Web Store. Edge users may also consider the recently introduced Sleeping Tabs feature.
UPDATED (23:43) – Fixed incorrect text refering to the Chrome Web Store.