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Comment by freediver | Hacker News Reader

We are working on a new native macOS browser based on Webkit with native web extension API support built in.

We have uBlock origin and many others extensions working already. By doing this we get best of both worlds - performance and energy use of Webkit and extensions from chrome/firefox.

Screenshot: https://ibb.co/7V8sfyX

We are open for beta testers. Please email me if interested with short background and area of your interest.

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The problem with browsers is that it is hard to monetize unless you go down some shady rabbithole. So exactly how are you going to make money and make your first million dollars?

It's actually not that hard to monetize browser extensions, and I think this is changing as the quality of extensions gets better — people are more willing to pay for software that solves their problems, regardless of the format. Here's an extension that makes $38k / month! https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/187-jordan-oconnor-of-c...

And here's one that made at least $100k: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/css-scan/100-000-in-rev...

> It's actually not that hard to monetize browser extensions

It's actually not that hard to become a billionaire [points at some billionaires]

By the way, here are some stats on Chrome extensions: https://www.debugbear.com/blog/counting-chrome-extensions

Not a really fair reply. I was pointing out that there's nothing inherently hard about monetizing extensions and you definitely don't have to "go down some shady rabbithole" to do it. The services to charge for extensions exist and all that really matters is providing value, which as you're pointing out, can be hard.

> there's nothing inherently hard about monetizing extensions

Over 95% of Chrome extensions are completely free, as in no form of payment whatsoever. This makes extensions one of the worst of all software markets. Users just expect extensions to be free.

Also, the browsers vendors themselves can make it difficult to monetize extensions. Firefox eliminated its extension store several years ago, and Google is eliminating Chrome Web Store payments next month. If anything, the Mac App Store is now the easiest place to monetize extensions IMO.

> Over 95% of Chrome extensions are completely free, as in no form of payment whatsoever. This makes extensions one of the worst of all software markets. Users just expect extensions to be free.

Most Chrome extensions are low quality, too! But to me that just means there's a lot of opportunity. I've seen enough paid extensions succeeding (I can send more links if you're interested) that I'm readily convinced the market isn't that bad at all, and it will only get better as people encounter more quality extensions that provide enough value to pay for.

> Also, the browsers vendors themselves can make it difficult to monetize extensions. Firefox eliminated its extension store several years ago, and Google is eliminating Chrome Web Store payments next month. If anything, the Mac App Store is now the easiest place to monetize extensions IMO.

Yeah, it's annoying that neither Google of Firefox stores have easy payments — it makes taking payments less accessible for developers. But obviously it's still possible to roll your own payments or using things like my own https://extensionpay.com

> Yeah, it's annoying that neither Google of Firefox stores have easy payments — it makes taking payments less accessible for developers. But obviously it's still possible to roll your own payments or using things like my own https://extensionpay.com

That's cool. I may look into this. Do you have a list of extensions using the service?

May I ask what your business model is or would be, since you require people to email you with specific information to beta test your product?

Sure. We are also building a search engine and we believe that you need to think holistically about replacing Google, by offering other infrastructure as well and a browser is a part of that (privacy friendly, with ad blocking built in). Btw we are starting to take beta testers for the search engine as well.

The extra info is only because I want to devote full personal attention to our beta testers, so some context helps.

So, why not start with building a search engine? Why browser first?

Gotta start small

Yes!

uBlock origin is the biggest thing keeping me from going to Safari, that and the Stylus extension(or something like it).

Cascadea is a decent Stylus stand-in for Safari, though it isn't free (currently costs US$2.99).

Been a Safari user for years and still consider Apple doing anything to lose uBlock support one of their worst moves in that space. My browsing honestly feels so less safe without uBlock Origin, almost never had a dodgy popup or banner do something weird that wasn't blocked but once you're in the much weaker Safari only blocker ecosystem it happens constantly.

How are you tackling all the missing / private APIs in Cocoa WebKit? Stuff like location, fullscreen, WebRTC, etc.

We exposed private headers using private module map.

Interesting, is this planned to be an open source project?

Yes eventually. We are currently laser focused on getting the hardest part of the work done. The webextensions API layer is pretty substantial and had to be rebuilt from scratch on top of Webkit core which is a giant project on its own. It has been two years in the making and we are at about 70% webextensions api coverage with a small but passionate team.

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