The Great Suspender Chrome Extension Removed For Being Malware, Tabs Lost

Perhaps a bit worse than Google Play Store, the Chrome Web Store for browser extensions has been notorious for hosting malware disguised as useful plugins. Google has started to tighten the noose on these potentially harmful software but some malicious actors have stepped up their game of deceptive strategies. Now, these malware entice users by actually delivering the functionality they promise but with dangerous malware added on top. Such was the case with The Great Suspender that has caused a great uproar because of how Google handled the situation.

It is almost ironic that The Great Suspender actually addresses one of Chrome's biggest problems. The world's most-used web browser is notorious for being a memory hog, especially since its users often have dozens of tabs opened all at once. Google is developing ways to reduce Chrome's memory use for inactive tabs but The Great Suspender offered that functionality for more than a year already.

Unfortunately, the extension has also been labeled as malware that started tracking users last year. After many news outlets covered the situation, Google started warning users about the dangers posed by the extension. Unfortunately, it how now taken the drastic action of disabling and removing the extension but may have unintentionally also caused users more trouble.

The Great Suspender, as its name implies, suspends idle or unused tabs in the background. When Google automatically removed the extension, those tabs remained inaccessible. In other words, those tabs have practically been lost with no direct way for users to get them back.

There is, fortunately, a way to access those tabs again, but it does require a bit of work. That involves searching through Chrome's history for tabs marked with the extension's unique "klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg" and copying only the actual links of the web pages. For people who needed The Great Suspender to keep their dozens of tabs in check, that might be a daunting task nonetheless.