Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers • Hacker News Board

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#151

Post by timwaagh » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 10:52 AM UTC

I don't think devs should be shamed into not selling their software. That's some questionable 'white-knight' ethics. If you sell something, great. if you don't, also great. if you use ads to monetize or sell data, also great. If you use a freemium model which serves ads to the plebs and asks money from the elite, even better.

For that matter I don't think open browser producers can be expected to foot the bill for it either. their browsers do not cost a thing, after all and browser extensions only impact a very small part of their userbase.

Please remember that not everyone has a problem with ads, 'privacy invasion' and targetting. Some people do and think that everyone should think the same. I find this mentality rather stifling.

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#152

Post by gildas » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:09 AM UTC

elorant wrote: post #150

keraf wrote: post #142

NoCoin author here. With approx 700k users across 3 browsers, I have obviously received many emails for purchasing my extension. I have never accepted to sell my project, even when I had some low financial moments, because my intent was never to make money with it. And it being an open source project, it belongs to the community. I would also feel like I am breaching the trust of my users if I decide to hand it over…

If I'm not too intrusive, what's the average offer an extension like yours receives for selling it?

I publish an extension on the store of Chrome with 1+ million of (technical) users. Three years ago, someone proposed me to buy it for 50,000 USD. He clearly indicated that he was interested by the user base...

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#153

Post by giancarlostoro » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:20 AM UTC

timwaagh wrote: post #151

I don't think devs should be shamed into not selling their software. That's some questionable 'white-knight' ethics. If you sell something, great. if you don't, also great. if you use ads to monetize or sell data, also great. If you use a freemium model which serves ads to the plebs and asks money from the elite, even better. For that matter I don't think open browser producers can be expected to foot the bill for it…

> Some people do and think that everyone should think the same. I find this mentality rather stifling.

I feel like people should be more informed over the implications. If they still don't care once I explain the issues, that's their prerogative to not care. I feel like most people don't understand why the "I have nothing to hide" mentality will cost us plenty of freedoms we still have.

I agree with you though, most people aren't like the majority of HN users, they just don't care or don't understand.

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#154

Post by giancarlostoro » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:21 AM UTC

Mathnerd314 wrote: post #61

If it's open source then anyone can fork, right? So sell the extension, fork it, publish a new non-shitty version, and let users know via some non-official means. The only losers are the ignorant people who don't switch and the people you sold it to.

I mean, this is what happened with MariaDB, and over the years more distros have outright replaced MySQL with MariaDB. He made a lot of money selling MySQL too.

I don't condone this idea for browser plugins because the userbase for plugins are usually install and forget. I don't think most devs spend their time reading all the release notes of every plugin they install.

When you install a database server / engine, you take time to figure out if it's the one you want or not. You research the company and other companies using the product.

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#155

Post by callumlocke » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:24 AM UTC

elorant wrote: post #150

keraf wrote: post #142

NoCoin author here. With approx 700k users across 3 browsers, I have obviously received many emails for purchasing my extension. I have never accepted to sell my project, even when I had some low financial moments, because my intent was never to make money with it. And it being an open source project, it belongs to the community. I would also feel like I am breaching the trust of my users if I decide to hand it over…

If I'm not too intrusive, what's the average offer an extension like yours receives for selling it?

I’m the author of JSON Formatter [1] with 989,000 users.

I probably get a couple of offers a year for it. Of those that have offered specific sums, they ranged from from $10-20k. I always reject them, because it’s pretty obvious they want to turn it into malware.

I’ve had a couple of cases where I felt they went to some effort to schmooze me first, presenting themselves as having benign intentions, almost like a carefully crafted con. But as far as I can tell, there is no legitimate, ethical reason to want to acquire it, and I won’t sell out my users like that.

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/json-formatter/bcj...

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#156

Post by zzzcpan » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:28 AM UTC

timwaagh wrote: post #151

I don't think devs should be shamed into not selling their software. That's some questionable 'white-knight' ethics. If you sell something, great. if you don't, also great. if you use ads to monetize or sell data, also great. If you use a freemium model which serves ads to the plebs and asks money from the elite, even better. For that matter I don't think open browser producers can be expected to foot the bill for it…

> browser extensions only impact a very small part of their userbase

Third or even half of the userbase is not a small part.

> Please remember that not everyone has a problem with ads, 'privacy invasion' and targetting.

Everyone has a problem with this once they understand what's going on and how it can be used against them. It's just most people are not software engineers and security, privacy related issues are hard for them to understand.

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#157

Post by cartlidge » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:31 AM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #134

feanaro wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know about about:performance?

Firefox has a task manager now. They should improve on this to compete with Googles. Nobody wants to type a URL when they can hit an easy shortcut.

I have a hope of remembering about:performance. I can bookmark it, and it's there in autocomplete. You can make a link to it in your webpage or in a nice plugin (which, once it gets a couple thousand users, you can sell to an honest businessman for tens of thousands).

Shift-Escape? what? I'm supposed to just randomly press every key combination till something happens?

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#158

Post by zzzcpan » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:37 AM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #116

Maybe it is me, but I seldom see the value of using an extension versus little utilities. It is not as if every mainstream language doesn't have libraries to handle networking requests.

I wrote a security focused javascript, ad and annoyance blocking extension for myself, which is essentially a CSP, script and style injector with keyboard shortcuts. I don't see how utilities can help here.

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#159

Post by ignoramous » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:38 AM UTC

callumlocke wrote: post #155

elorant wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm not too intrusive, what's the average offer an extension like yours receives for selling it?

I’m the author of JSON Formatter [1] with 989,000 users. I probably get a couple of offers a year for it. Of those that have offered specific sums, they ranged from from $10-20k. I always reject them, because it’s pretty obvious they want to turn it into malware. I’ve had a couple of cases where I felt they went to some effort to schmooze me first, presenting themselves as having benign intentions, almost like a care…

$20k seems like a pretty lowball offer? Close to 1M users (plus potential for further growth) and you have me expecting at least $400k... Or, am I expecting too much?

Re: Google and Mozilla are failing to support browser extension developers

#160

Post by iterati » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 11:46 AM UTC

ignoramous wrote: post #159

callumlocke wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m the author of JSON Formatter [1] with 989,000 users. I probably get a couple of offers a year for it. Of those that have offered specific sums, they ranged from from $10-20k. I always reject them, because it’s pretty obvious they want to turn it into malware. I’ve had a couple of cases where I felt they went to some effort to schmooze me first, presenting themselves as having benign intentions, almost like a care…

$20k seems like a pretty lowball offer? Close to 1M users (plus potential for further growth) and you have me expecting at least $400k... Or, am I expecting too much?

JSON Formatter is more aimed at technical users. I wonder if an extension with 1M less technical users would next higher.