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Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

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Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#11

Post by Alonski »

kkevv wrote: post #2

Hey HN and the broader world! We are incredibly excited to share what we have been cooking up . After building Chrome Extensions for recruiters and marketers, we got a glimpse of the power of browser extensions. However, we also got a taste of how hard extensions are to create. This led us down a path of exploring whether companies were interested in building custom internal extensions. We studied hundreds of custom…

Just signed up for the wait list. I know from first hand experience how tough it is to build extensions from scratch. Excited to try this out.

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#12

Post by kkevv »

toyg wrote: post #10

As somebody who has built quite a few of these internal extensions through the years, technical hurdles were never the problem. The problem was to persuade managers that they were worth the effort, persuade workers that I wouldn’t “screw up” their preciously-pristine browser, and persuade IT not to use their “UNAUTHORIZED SOFTWARE!!11!” flamethrower. In short, exclusively people-problems. Keep that in mind, in terms…

Haha, thank you for sharing your insight!

How did you push through all the people-problems? Was the productivity gained from the extensions the angle you pushed?

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#13

Post by mrkramer »

Aren't companies using Robotic process automation (RPA) software solutions to automate workflows.

There are also tools like Selenium, AutoIt and iMacros to automate workflows but I think the best thing is to have in house made native solution for your workflow automation but I guess not all companies can afford it.

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#14

Post by toyg »

kkevv wrote: post #12
toyg wrote: post #10

As somebody who has built quite a few of these internal extensions through the years, technical hurdles were never the problem. The problem was to persuade managers that they were worth the effort, persuade workers that I wouldn’t “screw up” their preciously-pristine browser, and persuade IT not to use their “UNAUTHORIZED SOFTWARE!!11!” flamethrower. In short, exclusively people-problems. Keep that in mind, in terms…

Haha, thank you for sharing your insight! How did you push through all the people-problems? Was the productivity gained from the extensions the angle you pushed?

Obviously, and it typically requires triangulating alliances (users & managers vs IT, or users & IT vs managers, occasionally IT & managers vs users but that's often a symptom the tool is not good).

One big issue most managers care about, is long-term maintainability. When you sell this, you should probably advise customers to have more than one person skilled up and responsible for maintaining the resulting tools. I was often bounced because "once you leave, nobody will know how to fix this" (which is fair, and happened more often than not). Making it easy to share projects is key.

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#16

Post by mritchie712 »

mritchie712 wrote: post #15

I like it. Do you support WebSQL? One category of apps I think would be interesting is caching SaaS data locally to make for fast search. e.g. Intercom is painfully slow, I want an extension that caches recent Intercom data for fast search and messaging.

We made this extension recently. It lets you query data in any `` in any open Chrome tab. Pretty nuts what you can build with extensions vs. a standard web app. Good luck!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sqanything/naejbcf...

https://doc.seekwell.io/sqanything

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#17

Post by kkevv »

toyg wrote: post #14
kkevv wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, thank you for sharing your insight! How did you push through all the people-problems? Was the productivity gained from the extensions the angle you pushed?

Obviously, and it typically requires triangulating alliances (users & managers vs IT, or users & IT vs managers, occasionally IT & managers vs users but that's often a symptom the tool is not good). One big issue most managers care about, is long-term maintainability. When you sell this, you should probably advise customers to have more than one person skilled up and responsible for maintaining the resulting tools. I…

Gotcha, thank you so much for the advice. Maintainability, especially with something uncommon like a Chrome Extension, must seem really sticky.

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#18

Post by kkevv »

mritchie712 wrote: post #16
mritchie712 wrote: post #15

I like it. Do you support WebSQL? One category of apps I think would be interesting is caching SaaS data locally to make for fast search. e.g. Intercom is painfully slow, I want an extension that caches recent Intercom data for fast search and messaging.

We made this extension recently. It lets you query data in any ` ` in any open Chrome tab. Pretty nuts what you can build with extensions vs. a standard web app. Good luck! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sqanything/naejbcf... https://doc.seekwell.io/sqanything

Woah that's amazing! I thought the name SeekWell was familiar, I think we used your SQL -> GSheets integration before!

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#19

Post by kkevv »

mritchie712 wrote: post #15

I like it. Do you support WebSQL? One category of apps I think would be interesting is caching SaaS data locally to make for fast search. e.g. Intercom is painfully slow, I want an extension that caches recent Intercom data for fast search and messaging.

Ohh, We haven't tried WebSQL yet with our builder, but from a quick Google search it seems possible!

Another route is to use something like http://alasql.org/ to cache data in localstorage so you can query it instantly. Would a search UX be better, or a text box to directly write SQL over your data?

Re: Show HN: Create Chrome Extensions for internal use

#20

Post by kkevv »

mrkramer wrote: post #13

Aren't companies using Robotic process automation (RPA) software solutions to automate workflows. There are also tools like Selenium, AutoIt and iMacros to automate workflows but I think the best thing is to have in house made native solution for your workflow automation but I guess not all companies can afford it.

Yeah! RPA is a really really powerful tool. We've seen companies hack RPA to add UI to existing tools as well.

Selenium is a bit tough because you end up with scripts that are hard for business users to execute. AutoIt and iMacros are solid web automation tools, but they lack the extensibility of a custom solution (to do things like add UI) and are also hard to share with non-technical users across a company.

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