Extension home page with Whitelist and Blacklist
Web Extension Pop down
The Web Extension in effect on speedrun.com
The web extension in effect on Miami Local News 10
The web extension in effect on YouTube
The effect of the web extension when the website being visited is blacklisted, in this case Twitter/X

Inspiration

For our inspiration, our team wanted to participate in this hackathon while also having fun working on a small, silly project. We were brainstorming ideas, and the idea of an "ad-blocker" that replaces the ads with something arguably more annoying seemed like it would be fun to work on. It additionally shows the large number of ads present on the internet in the modern day.

What it does

At its core, Polyester Block runs similar to an ad blocker. Instead of removing ads however, it replaces them with a funny viral edit. Its meant to be a fun web extension meat to prank your friends and family, and to show you the great amount of ads some websites have.

How we built it

Being a Chrome Web Extension, we primarily used HTML and JavaScript to access pages the user is on and to replace all the ads themself. Additionally, the extension popdown links to a webpage where the user can whitelist and blacklist certain pages. All the logic is coded in JavaScript with the pop down an web page being designed in HTML.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge we ran into was working with the JavaScript code. Since this project was both our first time seriously using it, we had to do a lot of trial and error and learning to understand and make everything run smoothly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Similarly, One of the accomplishments we are proud of is creating a working project heavily relying on JavaScript. One of my personal accomplishments was making the randomized video that bounces around the home web page.

What we learned

While working on this project, we learned a lot about how Chrome Web Extensions work and how to integrate them in a users browser experience. Additionally, we learned how to use JavaScript, HTML, and Chrome For Developers to create functional and interactive Chrome Web Extensions

What's next for Polyester Block

Next, we hope to improve on the extension by allowing people to submit their own videos and use them to replace the ads. Additionally, we could broaden out horizons and have the web extension work as a standalone desktop application.