Ask HN: Why aren't you building browser extension?

2 points·lab··6 comments

I noticed that when discussing a new idea with people, we usually settle for a website or a mobile app, even for ideas where a browser extension would make more sense. Do you notice a similar pattern? What barrier do you see when thinking about browser extensions?

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With respect to barriers, the change in APIs used to achieve the same task. For example Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave support the extension APIs from Chrome. Whereas Firefox & Safari support the extension APIs from Mozilla. Also there is an ongoing push from Chrome to move to manifest v3 which brings in new features & security (service workers, extended scope), but that leads to rework for extensions developed in manifest v2. So, there is always a catchup to be done, if browsers introduce new APIs or change the way the APIs should be used then there is a constant effort required to keep the extensions working.

I have a number of popular browser extensions (10,000+ users). I don't see any barriers. It's quite easy to do, fun and profitable.

Cool! I'm curious how the monetization part works?

I use Stripe. I require logging in to a service before the extension can be used.

My feeling about browser extensions is that half the ideas for good ones rely on third party websites.

So if I make a popular extension, I open myself to stress (eg: frantically updating my extension to respond to the third party pushing an update).

I've seen quite a few popular extensions die due to browser changes that removed APIs. Somehow that sort of rug-pull doesn't seem to happen much with websites or mobile apps.

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