As long as there have been annoying Internet ads (Ed.: except for those at The Daily Caller, of course), there’s been a steady demand for ad-blocking software. But if you’ve become tired of seeing a big blank white space where the ads used to appear on your favorite websites, April 1 was your lucky day.
Instead of merely blocking ads on Sunday, AdBlocker software replaced them — with pictures of cats.
“Ohai AdBlock yoozurs,” a lengthy stream of cute cat photo captions began on the popular software’s blog. “Dis Mikuls cat speking.”
“Dis Mikul,” the next picture said, with an arrow pointing to AdBlock creator Michael Gundlach. “He maekz AdBlock. He leevd dis coding laptop open. Mayyyybeh… I typ on it.”
“Im in ur AdBlock. Maekin it CatBlock … AdBlock jus block adz. Dat iz BORINGNESS.”
“I sho u cats insted k? Iz much betr.”
And so it was. For April Fool’s Day, every one of AdBlock’s millions of users saw pictures of cats instead of the customary nothingness. The software’s toolbar icon, a red stop sign, even acquired a subtle paw print.
Gundlach wrote Sunday that he planned to keep the cats meowing for at least a few days, allowing annoyed users — presumably “dog people” — to banish the “kittehs” with click.
By Sunday night the blog had more than 250 positive comments. “CatBlock forever! CatBlock for president!” read one. “ZE KATZ WYL RULZ WURLZD ONE DHAY!” another offered.
“Wow, um, there’s a lot more demand than I expected for CatBlock to not disappear,” Gundlach replied. “CatBlock doesn’t have to die!”
If he gets enough donations, he said, he will create a standalone version of the software for people who just can’t get enough of “I Can Has Cheezburger.”
