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Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

geoffreylitt.com

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Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#11

Post by eitland »

Endy wrote: post #6

Browser extensions are being underrated deliberately by browser developers. Ever since we lost XUL Firefox, anyone who wants to really do anything worth doing around a web browser should have already switched to Pale Moon. Doubly so with Google's Manifest v3, which is going to kill selective content download management.

Even as much as I want my old Firefox extensions back I reaaly don't feel I can trust a small bunch of developers to keep something as complicated as the old Firefox patched in this day and age.

Am I wrong?

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#12

Post by ggurgone »

Shameless self-promo – I built Refined Twitter Lite which customizes the new Twitter introducing features like Single Column layout.

I primarily built it for myself but maybe some of you folks might find it useful too https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/refined-twitter-li...

It is open source of course https://github.com/giuseppeg/refined-twitter-lite

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#13

Post by ggurgone »

seanwilson wrote: post #10

I launched my side project ( https://www.checkbot.io/ , a website best practices checker) as a paid Chrome extension and have been happy with the experience so far. The browser extension platform lets me easily support Linux, Chrome OS, Mac and Windows, with automatic updates and small installation size (~1MB). I get traffic from people discovering the extension via the Chrome store, and users can install and launch…

Looks useful, how do you manage distribution and the payments? I am looking for examples and resources of successful paid extensions who offer subscriptions https://readmo.app

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#14

Post by anantdgoel »

We recently launched a browser extension (https://www.getnobias.com/) and have been happy with the use cases we've been able to build around existing websites. Much easier than convincing news publishers to integrate our products directly into their websites. Users get to choose their experience.

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#15

Post by scarface74 »

idoubtit wrote: post #4

I believe many people should attempt to create their own web extension, even if they don't publish it. In my younger years, I used to crack and hack software just for fun. Those were my Softice years. Later, when Opera was not Chromium based, I also had several site customisations, since it was very easy to add my own JS and CSS to any web site. Nowadays, I have 4 extensions created and tailored for my needs. One tha…

Besides having to do it on every restart, that’s a good thing. It should be convoluted to do unsafe operations to protect the average user but allow the advanced user flexibility.

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#16

Post by seanwilson »

ggurgone wrote: post #13
seanwilson wrote: post #10

I launched my side project ( https://www.checkbot.io/ , a website best practices checker) as a paid Chrome extension and have been happy with the experience so far. The browser extension platform lets me easily support Linux, Chrome OS, Mac and Windows, with automatic updates and small installation size (~1MB). I get traffic from people discovering the extension via the Chrome store, and users can install and launch…

Looks useful, how do you manage distribution and the payments? I am looking for examples and resources of successful paid extensions who offer subscriptions https://readmo.app

I use https://paddle.com/ for subscription payments. Paddle deal with EU VAT for you which is a big benefit for me.

The Chrome store lets you take payments but it's not very flexible and it's tied to Chrome.

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#17

Post by ggurgone »

seanwilson wrote: post #16
ggurgone wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks useful, how do you manage distribution and the payments? I am looking for examples and resources of successful paid extensions who offer subscriptions https://readmo.app

I use https://paddle.com/ for subscription payments. Paddle deal with EU VAT for you which is a big benefit for me. The Chrome store lets you take payments but it's not very flexible and it's tied to Chrome.

ah sweet, so the extension is hosted on the Chrome Web Store but you manage payments and licenses with paddle?

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#18

Post by throwaway5752 »

burtonator wrote: post #3

Extensions are awesome but I think this article is a bit too optimistic. I mean I share the optimism but in practice a major challenge is the platform. Chrome for example has a ton of limitations: https://getpolarized.io/2019/04/05/Google-Will-Kill-Chrome-E... If you want to do anything significant you have to get their 'permission' and at that point they throttle your extension release updates. You can't just push a…

"This might sound reasonable until you realize that a week is an eternity for a continuous development shop. That might as well be a year.

ESPECIALLY if something is broken."

I get what you are saying, but this is more of an artifact of people being used to unregulated platform as a service and the - being blunt here - terrible quality practices that are rampant there. If a week is an "eternity" then try internally iterating a few times and shore up that test coverage if that extremely mild release cadence constraint is more than you can bear. Browser extensions are risk in security, authenticity of content, a new avenue for phishing (look alikes in low volume/poorly curated areas), and browser stability.

It isn't Chrome's fault if someone pushes a bug that destroys data, it's the development teams fault. There responsibility is the the user of Chrome.

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#19

Post by danShumway »

idoubtit wrote: post #4

I believe many people should attempt to create their own web extension, even if they don't publish it. In my younger years, I used to crack and hack software just for fun. Those were my Softice years. Later, when Opera was not Chromium based, I also had several site customisations, since it was very easy to add my own JS and CSS to any web site. Nowadays, I have 4 extensions created and tailored for my needs. One tha…

I believe Firefox Dev edition allows you to disable the signing requirement[0].

I do wish the requirements around signing were less stringent, but I'm fine using Dev Edition as a daily driver for now.

[0]: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-signing-in-firef...

Re: Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

#20

Post by seanwilson »

ggurgone wrote: post #17
seanwilson wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use https://paddle.com/ for subscription payments. Paddle deal with EU VAT for you which is a big benefit for me. The Chrome store lets you take payments but it's not very flexible and it's tied to Chrome.

ah sweet, so the extension is hosted on the Chrome Web Store but you manage payments and licenses with paddle?

That's right. This gives more flexibility like selling a license that works on Firefox + Chrome, and selling team based licenses.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google killed Chrome store payments in the future as well - I pretty much never hear mentions or updates about it. I wouldn't want to lose all my subscribers if that happened.

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