Ask YC: what is the future for browser extensions that personalize the web?
so i thought i'd ask the community, with the example of a few cases & existing scenarios:
[1] GetGlue provides a check-in mechanism for pages you visit. They basically augment the website with toolbars,links, 'like' buttons, badges & so on & even referral links to 3rd parties
[2] webmynd adds personalization to google
[3] rapportive adds links,and even third party raplets into gmail
Conduit[4] has a toolbar, that triggers personalization within webapges and is in the top 100 websites visited in the world today
my question : 1. will they alienate themselves from content destinations ( their 'hosts' ) 2. will they be able to sell advertising on a space owned by the host
here in india, a comparable scenario would be when popular dailies occasionally had a pamphlet that the delivery boy would fill and make some money out of. but guess what. the newspaper sued the advertiser - not the 'enabler'.
that said, there are content/personalization cases where the line is more blurry and tilting towards what the user decides to do.
eg: skype extension[5] that takes numbers on a page and turns them into 'call via skype' buttons.
or more recently google's highlight extension [6] that let's you double click/select random phrases on any page, and it displays a google logo with a search button right there. does this account for monetizing 3rd party content? essentially users of this plugin could be on a yahoo or bing page, select a word and a google search would show up. it's kind of a tricky case of accountability IMHO.
if my users want a site personalized, does that justify my plugin personalizing content/websites?
Or perhaps Cooliris [7] & Facebook's [8] form of bizdev driven personalizaton offer a half way path. I think wibiya [9] has reached great scale and are in a position to offer a non-extension,publisher-controlled personalization experience.
thoughts ?
PS: great thoughts on my question to firefox extensions traction here btw http://www.quora.com/Why-havent-we-seen-browser-extensions-take-off-like-Facebook-Apps
~B