Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 374 posts

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#11

Post by sorokod »

6DM wrote: post #8
sorokod wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 [edit: formatting, spelling]

It is not clear what problem you are solving.

Extension devs know the rules of the game up front and have no expectation of profit.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#12

Post by odensc »

Can confirm. A couple years ago, I had a Chrome extension with ~100k users; I was receiving these types of emails every week.

One of them straight up offered $10k, whether that was a real offer or not I don't know because I never replied to any of them.

I've since taken down the extension as I'm no longer maintaining it, but weirdly I still get these emails, albeit less frequently.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#14

Post by mfrisbie »

ChatGPT for Google was #1 on HN earlier this year. Check out the GitHub repo now: that person sold the extension.

I had a small side project extension, ~25,000 installs & free to use. I got enough inbound interest trying to "help me monetize" that I thought it would be worth cataloguing all the different unsavory avenues: https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/the-ugly-business-of-mone...

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#15

Post by 6DM »

Chabsff wrote: post #10
6DM wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you're thinking from the browser level. I was thinking from the standpoint of what I could do as an extension developer.

If we approach it from that angle, then your extension can only restrict access to it's features via a round trip to your own servers to validate access and/or show a checkout view to purchase access.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#16

Post by 6DM »

sorokod wrote: post #11
6DM wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 [edit: formatting, spelling]

It is not clear what problem you are solving. Extension devs know the rules of the game up front and have no expectation of profit.

I may have misunderstood your prior comment so please excuse me if I got it wrong. The problem I was solving was how to make money from an extension that I publish. I was outlining different business models where you could give the user access to the extension, and make money without having to accept this arrangement with data thieves.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#17

Post by hamburglar »

sorokod wrote: post #11
6DM wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 [edit: formatting, spelling]

It is not clear what problem you are solving. Extension devs know the rules of the game up front and have no expectation of profit.

Yes, most extension devs probably start out with no intentions of profit. They wrote their extension to scratch an itch. However, once they get an installed base and start getting offers to do shady stuff, it seems obvious that they might be tempted by easy money. If they had a more legitimate way to make money, they may be less tempted by the shady stuff.

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#18

Post by kotaKat »

I have an extension I wrote that is literally for a single regional website to do some extra blocking to get around a paywall. There are under 10 installs total. For some reason, the most recent monetization email I got thought it was 10,000.

> I'm reaching out to discuss a unique monetization opportunity for your extension, , through our exclusive Premium Bing Hosted Product. > I'm thrilled to let you know that this invitation-only product offers the chance to earn as much as $500 per month for every 1000 users. Given that your extension has a user base of 10K, you stand to make up to $5000 monthly just by integrating the search functionality into your extension. This could be a significant source of passive income, and I truly believe it's an opportunity you won't want to pass up.

I... I... I know the 10 installs are all basically /my devices/...

Re: Temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer (2021)

#19

Post by burkaman »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #2

The 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.

An extension user could theoretically be willing to pay for the value the extension provides them. The malicious actors sending these emails are willing to pay for the value that a user's data provides them. These two numbers are not related in any way, and the value of user data will often be much higher than the value of the extension's functionality.

There is no way for monetization to solve this, because the two potential customers are not purchasing the same product.

Post reply on HN