Fed up with the barrage of new “Star Wars” clips and spoilers? Or just plain sick of hearing about the movie? A new tool designed to protect unsuspecting web surfers from “Star Wars” overload may be your only hope.
The Chrome extension, built by the founders of helpdesk ticketing system JitBit, takes over and blurs your browser screen when you land on a web page that mentions “Star Wars,” signaling that spoilers may be ahead. You can then choose to forge ahead, or leave the page.
The tool was designed to protect fans from unwanted spoilers: “We scratched our own itch by building this extension,” JitBit co-founder Alex Jumašev told Quartz. But it works equally well for those who have no interest in “Star Wars” and are just tired of hearing about it. After installing the browser, you’ll soon realize just how much of the internet is peppered with “Star Wars” references.
As TechCrunch reported, the extension appears to use a simple keyword search to signal the warning. As a result, the tool can be a little trigger-happy. The smallest reference to “Star Wars” on any web page, including Facebook or Twitter, will elicit an alert.
You can’t“whitelist” approved sites, as one Chrome web store reviewer noted. (However, Jumašev tells Quartz that the company plans to add whitelisting if a “reasonable amount of users” ask for it.)
Keep in mind that, because it’s a browser extension, the blocker won’t work while you’re on the phone avoiding your family during Thanksgiving.
But if you’re considering a media blackout to avoid all “The Force Awakens” news ahead of the film’s debut, this could be just the thing for you. And if you watch HBO’s “Game of Thrones” or AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” now might be the time to demand a similar tool to block the seemingly-unavoidable spoilers that have frustrated fans online for years.