Goodblock raises money for charities by blocking advertisements

There was a time when ad-blockers did what they said on the metaphorical tin: Stop advertisements from appearing while their users browse the Web. But in an increasingly crowded market with multiple tools promising to declutter websites, new ad-blockers need a schtick to differentiate themselves from the competition. Goodblock, an extension available as a public beta, is one of those newcomers. It performs the standard function of blocking ads — that’s in the job description — but it also gives users the option of periodically viewing advertisements that give at least 30 percent of their revenues back to the charitable cause of their choice. The actual mechanisms, which involve what the company behind Goodblock calls an “ambassador butterfly” named Tad as well as using virtual hearts as currency, is a little more complicated but that’s the gist of the extension. It’s available now for Google Chrome, and it will expand to Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari soon. The ads themselves are static images that will take up an entire browser screen. Users can decide not to view the ads — just leave the ambassador butterfly alone! — and Goodblock will continue to block all the ads that would otherwise appear. Gladly, the company behind the app, has basically built a guilt-free ad-blocker.