US teen's Internet plugin foils Twitter plot-spoilers
Fed up with Twitter friends ruining the plots of her favorite TV shows, high school senior and budding software engineer Jennie Lamere took matters into her own hands.
She's finalizing an Internet browser plugin called Twivo that uses keywords inserted by the user—like a show's title or the names of characters and actors—to intercept any plot-spoiling tweets.
"I was just getting kind of annoyed how on Tuesday, when a lot of my favorite shows were on, I could never go on Twitter because it was filled with spoilers," the 17-year-old from New Hampshire told the Los Angeles Times.
The concept was original enough for Lamere to win top honors at the TVnext hackathon, or a computer programming competition, in Boston last month, where she was the only female participant.
Lamere is a fan of "Dance Moms" and "Pretty Little Liars," but like a growing number of TV viewers, she prefers to watch episodes on streaming services like Hulu after their original broadcast.
Lamere, who hopes to work for Google one day, is already using a beta version of Twivo, but ironing out some kinks before releasing it for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox in a few weeks.
© 2013 AFP
