Awwblock

Ads out. Aww in.

Awwblock is a browser extension that quietly replaces the ads on the web with calming animals: capybaras, ducks, puppies, and kittens. Where a banner used to be, you get a tiny, lovely moment of aww.

It won't fix the internet. But it might make your corner of it a little softer, one ad slot at a time.

Note: Awwblock replaces ads, it doesn't block them. Run it instead of an ad blocker, not alongside one. (If uBlock/AdBlock removes an ad first, there's nothing left for Awwblock to turn into a duck.)

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See it in action

Real ad slots on real news sites, quietly turned calm. (The sites didn't agree to this; that's half the fun.)

GeekWire's header leaderboard, optimized to five kittens and a saucer of milk.

Fox News: a big improvement! ducklings on parade up top (left); a sleeping corgi in the billboard and a kitten on the scratching post in the rail (right).

The popup: pick your animals and watch the "cuties deployed" counter climb.

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How to install it (the easy way)

Awwblock isn't in the browser stores yet, so you install it "unpacked." That sounds technical but it's about 30 seconds, three steps, no command line.

TL;DR (Chrome / Edge): download the ZIP and unzip it, go to chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and pick the folder. Done. Steps with detail below.

Step 1: Get the files (everyone)

1. Grab the code: easiest is the latest release (download the ZIP asset). Or click the green < > Code button on this page and choose Download ZIP.
2. Find the downloaded .zip (usually in your Downloads folder) and double-click it to unzip.
3. You now have an awwblock folder (if you used the green Code button, it's named awwblock-main; either is fine). Remember where it is. Don't delete it; the extension runs from this folder.

Step 2: Add it to your browser

Chrome or Edge

1. Open a new tab and go to chrome://extensions (Edge: edge://extensions).
2. Turn on Developer mode (toggle in the top-right corner).
3. Click Load unpacked (top-left).
4. Select the awwblock-main folder from Step 1.
5. Done! Visit any news site and refresh. The ads are now animals. 🦆

Firefox (experimental)

Firefox technically loads it, but support is ruff (get it?) right now: Firefox enforces page security policies on extension images more strictly, so on some sites the animals won't appear and you'll still see the empty ad slot. Chrome or Edge is the recommended experience for now. If you want to try it anyway:

1. Open a new tab and go to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
2. Click Load Temporary Add-on….
3. Open the awwblock-main folder and select the manifest.json file.
4. Visit a news site and refresh. (Firefox removes temporary add-ons on restart, so you'll redo this each time.)

Step 3: Use it

Click the Awwblock icon in your toolbar to:

• Turn it on/off
• Choose which animals are in rotation (capybara, duck, puppy, kitten)
• See how many cuties it's deployed

That's it. Go forth and be calm.

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How it works (for the curious)

• Finds ad slots two ways: known ad-network containers (AdSense, Google Ad Manager, DoubleClick, Taboola, Outbrain, FreeStar, and friends), plus elements sized like standard IAB ad units that also look ad-ish.
• Replaces each one with a real photo of an animal, sized to fit the slot. It picks a photo whose shape matches the slot so nothing gets awkwardly stretched, and re-fits when you resize the window.
• Stays put. Ad scripts love to re-inject themselves; a per-slot guard keeps the animal in place so nothing flickers.
• Stays polite. It's deliberately conservative: a non-ad element that merely happens to be 300×250 is left alone unless it also smells like an ad. Hidden/responsive duplicate slots are skipped so you never get phantom boxes.

A duckling fronts the brand, but it's a four-animal show: capybara, duck, puppy, and kitten.

Project layout

File / folder	What it is
manifest.json	Extension config (Manifest V3; Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
content.js	Finds ad slots and swaps in the art
animals.js	The photo library + the slot-matching logic
popup.html / popup.js	The toolbar popup (on/off, animal toggles)
photos/	The animal photos, organized by animal and size
icons/	Extension icons
demo.html	A mock news page to preview all four animals
tools/	How the art is made: crop-studio.html (frame crops by hand) plus the build scripts

Make it your own

• Add ad selectors: edit AD_SELECTORS in content.js.
• Add photos: crop them in tools/crop-studio.html, drop them in, and rebuild animals.js with node tools/build_animals.js.

Known limitations

• Some ads live inside cross-origin iframes or proprietary video players we can't reach into; those won't swap.
• Firefox temporary add-ons reset on restart (until this is published to Mozilla Add-ons).

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Part of the AI Lab at benjaminmullins.tv. AI is for silly things. Licensed under MIT.