Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
1–10 of 374 posts
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#2The root problem here is that there's no legitimate way to monetize browser extensions. Extensions are meant to be simple, so it's hard to sell premium features. Extensions usually don't "own" any space to embed ads in.
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#3Unbelievable how persistent redacted were over the years.
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#4To see this many aggressive offers over an extension with ~300k users, it makes you wonder how intense the offers are for the likes that reach in the millions.
The incentives seem entirely misaligned in the extension space.
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#5The root problem here is that there's no legitimate way to monetize browser extensions. Extensions are meant to be simple, so it's hard to sell premium features. Extensions usually don't "own" any space to embed ads in.
I think the only way is to treat access like we do web apps, then enable/disable features accordingly.
That's kinda lame because now you have to have a backend setup, just so you can charge for some features.
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#6The root problem here is that there's no legitimate way to monetize browser extensions. Extensions are meant to be simple, so it's hard to sell premium features. Extensions usually don't "own" any space to embed ads in.
Do you believe that if there was a way to monetize extentions devs would not be approached by data thives?
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#7Hell I have gotten offers like this on a Discord bot, even. Wherever user data can be found, there are those who'd like to have their finger on the pulse
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#8The root problem here is that there's no legitimate way to monetize browser extensions. Extensions are meant to be simple, so it's hard to sell premium features. Extensions usually don't "own" any space to embed ads in.
Do you believe that if there was a way to monetize extentions devs would not be approached by data thives?
Not sure if sarcasm but will respond as if it's not.
There are lots of business models to choose from
- subscription
- affiliate links
- sponsors
- one time charge, this one is tricky as restricting access requires a back-end that needs ongoing maintenance and server costs
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#9Unbelievable how persistent redacted were over the years.
"And how do you spell your name, sir?"
"It's lowercase-italics 'r', lowercase-italics 'e', lowercase-italics 'd', lowercase-italics 'a', lowercase-italics 'c', lowercase-italics 't', lowercase-italics 'e', lowercase-italics 'd'"
"Ha, ha, your name is 'redacted'?"
"No"
Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)
#10The root problem here is that there's no legitimate way to monetize browser extensions. Extensions are meant to be simple, so it's hard to sell premium features. Extensions usually don't "own" any space to embed ads in.
I think the only way is to treat access like we do web apps, then enable/disable features accordingly. That's kinda lame because now you have to have a backend setup, just so you can charge for some features.
The issue with that is that "Gets to read and/or write the DOM" happens to be the only permissions a nefarious extension needs while also being those that a vast number of useful extensions require.