A software developer made a Chrome and Firefox extension called Knockoff that automatically hides, grays out, or filters products from sketchy brands on Amazon, which highlights just how many shady brands are on the platform and how commonly they show up on searches for basic items. 

In just a few minutes of using the extension, Knockoff dimmed product listings for screwdrivers made by “SUNHZMCKP,” spoons made by “SACATR,” and a lamp made by “ROTTOGOON.” In a tweet announcing the extension, developer Josh Pigford wrote “Sorry to brands like WNPETHOME, EHEYCIGA, YXYL, LU&MN, JOYIN, TOMY, GODONLIF, YOOJEE, LINGTENG, LANEIGE, VISCOO, BIODANCE, COOFANDY, BALENNZ, TOSY, and LUENX.” The extension can also hide all sponsored product listings. The extension quickly went viral as a much-needed filter for people who still use Amazon and, for those who don’t use Amazon because of its horrendous labor practices and other concerns, it is evidence of what an incredible wasteland the platform has become. 

In a video call, Pigford told me that he had been thinking about making Knockoff for a while but that he finally decided to do it last weekend. “I was cutting the grass and about to get my trimmer out to do some weed eating, and it wouldn’t crank. So I decided to get some specific tools, and I searched for them and was like ‘What are these brands? Am I going insane?’ I just wanted something from a common brand or something I was familiar with,” he said. “I was like ‘man, I’ve gotta build something.’”

Pigford said that Knockoff is essentially building a list of brands to allow or not allow, and that it uses several different criteria to do this, including looking at the names of the brands: “Basically number of consonants, number of vowels, how they are grouped together, whether they’re in all caps or not,” he said. This means that brands like “EHEYCIGA” will be automatically added to the filter list. But the list of blocked brands is intended to be determined by its community of users, and any user can ask the extension to allow or block any specific brand for themselves. The project builds on previous similar attempts to highlight sketchy brands on Amazon, including one called AmazonBrandFilter and The Markup’s Amazon Brand Detector. The extension also allows anyone who has downloaded it to report potentially sketchy brands and to report brands that have been accidentally flagged as knockoffs. 

The extension runs locally and doesn’t require an account to use, and doesn’t send data back to any server. It is free. “I stand to benefit nothing directly economically, it’s a nice little tool I wanted to make,” Pigford said.

Knockoff is pretty useful whether you use Amazon or not. For those who don’t use Amazon, it highlights a problem repeatedly shown by Joe Biden’s Federal Trade Commission in an antitrust lawsuit against the company, which is that much of Amazon is pay-to-play, with brands needing to buy ads or placement boosts in order to be featured at the top of search results. The platform has also become an algorithmic and financial race to the bottom, with companies stealing others’ designs, jamming their product pages with keywords that will perform well in search, and creating fly-by-night brands to try to end up at the top of search results.

“There was somebody who sent me a screenshot from using the extension and the first 20 items or something were all grayed out. Like there were all these knockoff brands before they could find a legitimate item,” Pigford said. “It’s like, OK, that about sums it up.” 

“I think people want control over what it is that they're seeing on the internet,” he added. “This sort of gives some control back to just getting everything shoved in your face. It’s like fighting back against the algorithm to some extent.”

The Frenchman is a footballer, flautist and a thespian. There’s no question he is the most thrilling and compelling figure at this year’s tournament

This has been the World Cup of characters, bold fashion statements, and bantz: we’ve had Thomas Tuchel rubber-banding around the England dressing room like a teen at his first all-ages rave, and Iván Barton booting Miguel Almirón from the field as if sentencing him to death. Mauricio Pochettino and his $500 overshirt have brought fresh energy and inspiration to the wardrobes of convex middle-aged men the world over. Jokester Javier Aguirre’s avuncular “fuck you” at Anthony Gordon has pushed bilateral relations between Mexico and England to their warmest point since the British-brokered peace that ended the Pastry War of 1839.

Erling Haaland has shown it’s possible to be Jaws in front of goal and Scooby Doo once the ball is in the back of the net, that there’s nothing about football so important that it can’t make way for some silly bit of online comedy. Even Harry Kane, a man who often seems like he was media trained in the womb, has squeaked thrillingly, if briefly, to life.

‘Persistent’ inequities found to exist in access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, annual global review says

Remarkable scientific progress against cancer has changed very little for millions of patients globally, who face devastating physical, emotional and financial consequences after diagnosis, a new World Health Organization report has warned.

One person in five will develop cancer, according to WHO estimates, and the disease will touch 92% of people, either through their own diagnosis or that of a close family member.

For young people, flaunting eye bags and bed rotting has become a cheeky rebuttal of body optimization culture

Picture a typical hangover: a morning spent curled under a comforter, chugging Gatorade and shame spiraling about what you might have said at the bar the night before.

Not so for the young people who are “romanticizing” their hangovers on TikTok and Instagram. Instead, they are flaunting their dark eye circles and raging headaches as the aftereffects of a good time, broadcasting their bad decisions to the world with a glowy sheen.

Reboot your surplus zucchini as a condiment to complement just about any savoury plate

Mountain Feed is a super-cute garden nursery and store in Ben Lomond, California, with a blog I’ve followed for years (it teaches everything from bee-keeping to cheese-making) and which answers that age-old question, “What should I do with all this zucchini?!” in my favourite way – namely, through lacto-fermentation. Lacto-fermented courgettes are a great alternative to fermented or pickled gherkins, and perfect as a condiment alongside just about any plate of savoury food, especially when they’re spiced with lots of chilli.

Three families in Los Angeles on the devastating aftermath of ICE detentions and deportations that overwhelmed their city last summer

Last summer, Angelenos began to vanish.

Armed, masked immigration agents plucked people off street corners and out of their workplaces, in parking lots and department stores. Partners and primary breadwinners, grandparents and children, carwasheros and coffee shop regulars were arrested, detained and deported – disappearing from their neighborhoods.

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STRAATSBURG (ANP) - Het Europees Parlement heeft ingestemd met de handelsdeal met Mexico. De in mei voorgestelde handelsdeal kreeg 474 stemmen voor en 131 tegen tijdens de stemming in Straatsburg.

Een meerderheid van de Europarlementariërs ziet het belang van de handelsdeal voor de EU in een steeds meer gefragmenteerd geopolitiek landschap. Met de handelsdeal worden de banden met het Noord-Amerikaanse land weer aangehaald.

Er is afgesproken dat de importtarieven voor een lijst landbouwproducten en industriële producten worden afgeschaft. Voor producten die in de EU gevoelig liggen, zoals rundvlees, kip en alcohol, blijft nog wel een importlimiet gelden.

De lidstaten moeten nog een keer formeel stemmen over de handelsdeal. Officieel moet de deal ook nog worden goedgekeurd door alle parlementen van de 27 lidstaten. Maar het akkoord kan al voorlopig van kracht worden vanaf 1 november, aldus voorzitter van de handelscommissie van het parlement Bernd Lange.

Ja eergisteren overleed Frida Vogels, en hoewel dat de favoriete schrijver van onze hoofdredacteur is, zijn wij niet bijster bekend met haar oeuvre, dus daar houden we verder het muiltje over. Veel interessanter: gekat en gekift tussen de Volkskrant en ex-boekenrecensent Arjan Peters, die de enige was die haar ooit interviewde, meer specifiek in 2008. Best een mijlpaal, want Vogels vertoonde zich liever niet in levende lijve; toen ze in 1994 de Libris Literatuur Prijs won, liet ze haar redacteur 'm ophalen en een toespraak voorlezen. Afijn, Peters werd door de krant ooit weggebonjourd omdat hij op ongepaste manier toenadering zocht met schrijvers wier werk hij besprak; een auteur sprak destijds van 'nog net geen #MeToo' (Peters moet zich natuurlijk gedragen, maar anderzijds is 'nog net geen auto-ongeluk' heel nadrukkelijk géén auto-ongeluk, zoals 'nog net geen schietpartij' heel nadrukkelijk géén schietpartij is). Vervolgens haalde Peters in de rechtszaal zijn gram, en kreeg uiteindelijk 370k schadevergoeding (geen idee hoeveel boeken je daarvan kunt bespreken, maar mogelijk best veel). Hoe dan ook, terug naar Vogels; de In Memoriam in de Volkskrant noemt heel nadrukkelijk het interview, maar laat de naam van de interviewer achterwege. Enerzijds verwijst de Volkskrant in dergelijke stukken wel vaker naar zichzelf als de Volkskrant, dus is er niet per se sprake van kwade opzet; anderzijds betreft dit dus een uniek artikel, dat had die goede man toch maar mooi gefikst. Afijn, het viel een collega op, waarna Peters zich subiet op sociale media meldde om te claimen dat zijn naam wel in het oorspronkelijke artikel stond, maar 'op last van de hoofdredactie is geschrapt'. Geen idee of dat waar is, maar we vermaken ons in ieder geval kostelijk.