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For your next side project, make a browser extension

geoffreylitt.com

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Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#201

Post by scruple »

tppiotrowski wrote: post #126

It's also a good way of interviewing. As part of your cover letter, explain that you decided to improve the website of your future employer in some way and give a link to the extension. Someone I interviewed once did something like this and we couldn't think of a reason not to hire them because they effectively showed us they were capable of understanding and modifying our existing code which was basically what we wa…

That's interesting. I have a browser extension on my GitHub that added IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, etc., ratings and access to reviews to streaming services that I subscribe to. I doubt that could've been the basis of getting a job at those places but it was a fun project, regardless, and I got value of of it while I was using it. No idea if it still works, but I assume not

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#203

Post by monkpit »

l0b0 wrote: post #164

I developed one a few years ago, TDD and all. Automating browser testing was surprisingly difficult, and required working around some gaff to get it going at all. Nobody else seemed to be doing it, either, which was surprising. Last I checked it didn't seem any better, so I'm not too keen to do any more. At least the extension has continued working for many years with minimal upkeep.

I haven’t looked in years but last time I checked there was a real lack of any well-documented guides of how to get things going. I managed just by trial and error but I would hardly call it fun, it left me wondering how anyone makes any complex extensions without going insane.

Maybe there’s a missing manual somewhere that I just couldn’t find, but it all just seemed pretty annoying/painful. Tooling and debugging experience was really lacking.

EDIT: This is specifically regarding chrome extensions.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#204

Post by weaksauce »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #142
weaksauce wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use firefox mainly and thought it was common behavior between the two

Mozilla's signing process isn't too bad, especially if your addon changes infrequently. Recommend trying it.

oh i actually have quite a few extensions that I made for my own use. i did make a small tab extension that I use every day that I did put in the app store for others. it's just a visual way to see what tabs you have open across all the windows and be able to switch to them or close them. super useful to my tab hoarding. links are in my bio

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#205

Post by davidbarker »

LikeBeans wrote: post #174

I used the Opera browser for a while then moved to Firefox. One functionality I really missed was the little popup you get when you highlight some text. The popup would let you web search for whatever is highlighted for example. Anyway now on Firefox I made an extension that can do the same thing but then extended it further. At a basic level you can copy to clipboard, do a web search but also can do a Google Maps lo…

If you're on a Mac, I highly recommend PopClip (https://pilotmoon.com/popclip/). It works on any text you can select — across the whole OS. It's also context aware (so it knows if you're selecting a URL vs. regular text, for example).

There are plenty of plugins already available, but it's also possible to create your own very easily.

I had a quick Google and it seems there are similar apps available for Windows, but I don't know anything about them.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#206

Post by gizmo686 »

sublinear wrote: post #195
daveed wrote: post #104

I spent some time some productivity extensions, for gmail replies[0] and quick notetaking[1]. It was a lot of fun, but like other people have mentioned, porting to and working with manifest v3 is not as nice. I've noticed also that the way Google asks for permissions from the user is done in human-understandable, but worst-case language. For example, I think there was something where I wanted access to the current ta…

Maybe I'm underestimating the difficulty of this, but would it not make more sense for platforms to just give the user a complete listing of all the unique API function/method calls used by the app/extension with user-friendly descriptions of each? The APIs would still be grouped by permission, but the user would be able to expand into a list of checkmarks showing to what extent those permissions are used. As well, a…

Several problems.

1) Bypassing any sort of static analysis of your extension requires, at worst, crafting an arbitrary code execution attack against yourself. This is not particuarly difficult.

2) Often times, the specific method you want to use is more powerful than what you need to do, so even if you were restricted to those specific methods, you still have more power than you actually use.

3) Supposing you want to go down the "whitelist at the method level" approach, you could just ... whitelist at the method level. The developer knows what methods he will be calling, so just have a seperate permission for each of them. In practice, this would lead to a lot of permissions that are effectivly equievelent, and people would be asking why they aren't just bundled together in a single permission.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#207

Post by wonderfuly »

As the author of a popular extension [1] (400k users), I don't think Chrome extension is a good platform:

1. The review process is unstable and frustrating, sometimes it passes in 10 mins, sometimes it takes over ten days, it's painful if you're releasing some emergent bug fixes. 2. No support for monetization at all, Google Adsense are not allowed in browser extensions, no native payment support in the platform.

[1] https://chatgpt4google.com

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#209

Post by toyg »

mfrisbie wrote: post #99

I was enthusiastic enough about extensions that I decided to publish a book about building them: https://www.buildingbrowserextensions.com/ Browser extensions are severely underrated as a platform because they aren't sexy. For all that mobile devices have given us, so much of our work continues to be done using a desktop browser. Enhancements such as augmenting websites with widgets, supplying contextual information,…

> Browser extensions are severely underrated as a platform because they aren't sexy.

Nah, it's because it's a niche, fragmented platform on which it's very hard to make real money. It's also a very fragile platform that makes very clear you're a sharecropper who can be evicted on a whim by any browser vendor.

I like extensions, I've built several for personal and public use, but I wouldn't invest a penny on them.

Re: For your next side project, make a browser extension

#210

Post by toyg »

Glench wrote: post #66

I wrote something similar about extensions being a good starting place for indie hackers that are trying to make money. Many of the same conclusions as the author of the article — low barrier to creating, can sometimes grow and be useful for a lot of people with no scaling issues: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-browser-extensions-are... Also, I run a service that lets extension developers take payments in thei…

> , I run a service that lets extension developers take payments in their extensions

Link? Edit: nvm, found it https://extensionpay.com/

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