Show HN: Unweb – adblock for distractions (including HN)

unweb.app

4 points·louisbarclay··3 comments

I know it's needed to provide the functionality you're going for, but I'm always weary of extensions that want to "read and change data on ALL websites I visit".

Any reason why you not just request permission for the 19 domains you actually support? Also, I know some extension request permission on a per-domain-basis the first time they actually try to access it. Maybe that's a path you could also look into.

Good point. I had that debate with myself. And I concluded that since I'm going to be adding quite a few domains to Unweb in the near future, and since I don't want users to be asked for new permissions every time they install a new version (which is a potential churn point), I preferred to go with the <all_urls> permission for the hiding content script.

This is inline with what similar extensions like Motion (YC W20, http://inmotion.app/) do. But I do really sympathise and I'm sorry that this was a bad experience.

Incidentally there's a cost (aside from user trust) to doing it this way, which is that the Web Store takes far longer to review your extension - which hopefully means they do a good job of checking the permissions aren't being used malevolently.

Hi HN,

I built Unweb which is like adblock for distracting stuff. It default-hides things like feeds, related content etc. on popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, HN, LinkedIn. You can always show these distractions when you need them using a 'Show' button. So you lose the initial temptation, not the functionality.

Let me know what you think. My background: made another anti-distraction extension, Nudge, with over 2,000 WAU and 5 stars.

Cheers, Louis

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