Kitten Block for Firefox now has over 1,000 users and has been verified by Mozilla, but I've also had dozens of requests for a version that works with the Chrome browser. So, er, I made one. You can get it here.

As with the Firefox version, it's very simple: no options, just simple kitten-based blocking. Enjoy!

Not a bad week for www.teaandkittens.co.uk – it's tipped over 40,000 pageviews, over 300 people have installed Kitten Block for Firefox and this Saturday it got a listing in the Guardian Guide – thanks to Rachel H for pointing it out.

Over the past few days there has been quite a lot of interest in my Kitten Blocker for Firefox. Thanks to Martin Belam, Tom Cox, Ms Slide (site possibly NSFW, depending on where you work, I suppose) and everyone who's shared, blogged or passed the link around on Twitter. It has now blocked well over a hundred inadvertent visits to the Mail online, and the original Tea and Kittens site just served up its 20,000th kitten.

The original extension, Kitten Block version 1.01, is available on the Mozilla site, and works for any version of Firefox up to 3.6.x. I've had no reported problems, and it has now been tested on dozens of Windows and Mac systems. For those testing out Firefox 4 Beta, though, it'll refuse to install. This is a limitation of the installer package, rather than the code.

I'll update the Kitten Block package to 1.0.2, with support, once Firefox 4 exits beta and I can test it on the final version. In the meantime, here's a working beta version – I've tested on the current 4.0b6 (and 3.6), and I've set the package to be valid up to 4.0b9.

UPDATE – Version 1.1, on the Mozilla Update site, now supports Firefox 4 beta.
UPDATE 2 – Firefox 4 has launched, and is supported in full by v1.2

This is what the Daily Mail website now looks like on my computer. Let me explain.

It's hard to avoid the Daily Mail. Even if you'd never choose to buy a copy, links to its website are everywhere (except this post, obviously). Some are easy to spot and avoid, but when one is obfuscated by link shortening services – particularly common on Twitter, for obvious reasons – it's all to easy to visit Mail Online unintentionally. And this is bad for two reasons: it'll make you very angry or upset*, and it helps to bolster the newspaper's website stats and online advert impressions.

My solution involves kittens. All the best solutions do.

Kitten Block is a Firefox extension that blocks the Daily Mail and Daily Express websites. And nothing else. There are no configuration settings, options or adjustable blacklists and no override option, so once installed it looks rather like this:

If you click on a link – shortened, full or whatever – to either site the extension intercepts it and redirects you to a special page on www.teaandkittens.co.uk, as pictured above. The extension can of course be disabled or removed. It's free, obviously – the code that makes it tick is mostly cobbled together from snippets on the Mozilla Developer Hub site, so I take no real credit – and anyone's welcome to edit, reuse or improve it.

Kitten Block has been tested on Firefox 3.6 under Windows, but use it at your own risk – please let me know if you spot any bugs, problems etc. You can get it from the Mozilla Addons site, here.

UPDATE: Kitten Block version 1.1 is now up on the Mozilla Addons site. It includes support for Firefox 4 Beta (up to 4.0b7), optimised code (shorter, smarter, redesigned to prevent incompatibility with other addons) and – very excitingly – a new kitten icon.

UPDATE 2: Now also available for Chrome!

* Or both, obviously.

Last week, on a whim, I made a little website called www.teaandkittens.co.uk. As it turns out, people like tea and kittens. Quite a lot. And some of them even visited the website to see some photos.

In the few days since launch it's served up over 13,000 pageviews to just under 2,000 unique visitors – something of a shock to my poor server. It also took off somewhat on Twitter, where the reaction was huge and overwhelmingly positive. I received a few emails of thanks, and even some kitten photo submissions. Nobody has yet submitted a photo of a cup of tea, but there's still time.

I hadn't really planned anything for the site but it seems a shame to waste this kind of interest, so I've put an RSPCA donation link up on the page (there's another one here!). If I get some time I'll also add a tool for photo submissions. In the meantime, thanks to everyone for spreading the word, and please keep enjoying the kittens – caffeine and furballs FTW.