How many of us know of a celebrity that we would love to have blocked from our news stream? From the overexposed to the folks who just make your skin crawl for their behavior, I’m sure you can think of one. Well, Canadian media company AUX immediately thought of Chris Brown and has created a plug-in called the “Brownout” that allegedly makes it so that anything that has to do with Chris Brown is blocked from your browser. I don’t know how successful this will be, as all that happens is a huge bar pops up and covers his name in headlines and in search engines, and does the same for pictures of the brotha too. However, since the block is so obnoxious, it seems that it would draw more attention to his stories than it probably would have without the app. Either way, developers for AUX, including Sam Sutherland, an online producer for AUX, seem happy with their work, because they’re tired of talking about Chris Brown, and don’t find him apologetic enough (Because he needed to apologize to them too, right?):
“It is nearly impossible to go on the internet without reading something about him, he is always doing something outrageously moronic. If he wants to get a tattoo on his neck that kinda looks like Rihanna we are going to write about it. But at some point, it reaches Chris Brown idiocy saturation.”
Well, alright. AUX did something like this in the past for the Canadian rock band Nickelback, who they felt were always being talked about in the news for some random reason. “In the case of both artists, they are wildly popular and their fans love them. But for us and people who work for AUX and our audience, we were getting tired of these artists. In November, you couldn’t go on the internet without reading something about Nickelback.”
It all started with Nickelback, and now they’re blocking Breezy, so who knows who will be next. But I think downloading an application like this is pretty extreme. When you see something or someone you don’t like, you can definitely choose to ignore them and the news rather than blocking them out like they don’t exist. But hey, just as it’s a free country to talk for days about all things and antics Chris Brown, you’re more than free to download the Brownout and rid your browser of all his tattoo-getting, hair color-changing, dance-happy, Karrueche-kissing but Rihanna-loving antics. I on the other hand, shall stay tuned…
Here’s what the plug-in would look like:
What do you think about this plug-in idea? Who would you like to have blocked from your Internet browser for good?
