
Ask HN: What browser extensions do you use? - silvaben
My friend is building a browser extension for his side-project [1]. We were having a talk recently about browser extensions and if they can be a viable business model.<p>I thought HN would be a great place to kick-start a discussion about what browser extensions you guys find useful and if you would be willing to pay for an extension.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.emailthis.me
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brudgers
I use Greasemonkey, Firemacs, Menu Wizard, HttpsEverywhere...and their
relevance is mostly in that order.

Generally, I think a business built on building browser extensions is roughly
equivalent to the shareware businesses of the previous millenium. If the
extension is really useful and either solves a serious business problem or has
massive adoption then a little money will trickle in. But by and large the
problem is that the anchor price for the browser and browser extensions is $0.
This means that $10 is infinitely more money.

And the occasional $10 is very very rarely enough to really run a software
business and provide support and drive development forward. It's also not
enough to support significant marketing and even significant marketing is
unlikely to be enough to cut through the noise of the 'extension stores'.

Finally, I've been thinking that a lot of the real problem is that while $10
or $20 seems reasonable, the aggregate logic of cheap utilities is that if a
person pays for all of them it is real money...e.g. twenty ten dollar
utilities is becomes a non-trivial software purchase. I think people act on
this intuitively, they're not going to pay for all of them and that means not
paying for some of them and not paying for some of them is morally more or
less equivalent to not paying for any of them. And so they are disinclined to
pay.

Again, it's not impossible to create a revenue stream from this sort of
software, but it is unlikely to be enough to replace a full time job.

Good luck.

~~~
silvaben
> But by and large the problem is that the anchor price for the browser and
> browser extensions is $0.

Great point. This was my thought initially which is why I suggested my friend
to try a donation/pay-what-you-want model [1] before even trying to charge
money for it outright. This might give an indication of whether the app solves
a pain point enough to make people pay for it.

[1] [https://www.emailthis.me/pages/support-email-this-
donation](https://www.emailthis.me/pages/support-email-this-donation)

~~~
brudgers
The donation pay what you want model suggests that the developers think the
product might not be worth anything. My advice for a business: figure out how
much you need to charge to make enough money to run the business and charge
well in excess of that. If people pay it, then there's a business. If they
won't then there is not. If the developers are unwilling to charge money then
it's not a business...which is ok so long as nobody pretends it is one.

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matbram
I got tired of hitting 404 pages and having to manually load them in Wayback
Machine and Google Cache, so I created Web Cache Viewer.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-cache-
viewer/p...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-cache-
viewer/pbkloffickinnlnmefmjmjbacohecpbd)

Right click on any link or page to have the option to view the link/page with
Google Cache or Wayback machine.

I admit it's my own extension, but I do use it quite often and it's come in
handy.

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rryan
Emacs user with hundreds of Chrome tabs open? This extension will change your
life. It's iswitchb, for tabs.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/powerswitch/lljbpn...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/powerswitch/lljbpnomhjlnohbcipjjjmnbncfofobe?hl=en-
US)

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taf2
None - I enjoy the web just the way it is without any additional
functionality. There some applications I use that still need an extension-
appear.in but that is it. I suspect screen share will be standard some day
soon making it unnecessary to use an extension for this too which will be
awesome.

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stevekemp
WebDeveloper, uBlock Origin, and Tree-Style-Tab(s).

I'm sure there are businesses out there that make money with extensions, but
I'm struggling to think of one that I've ever seen I'd pay for.

Lots of people post (chrome) extensions here, for example, but I don't use
chrome so they're easy to ignore.

~~~
silvaben
My understanding is that an extension can be monetized in conjunction with a
web/mobile app. Given the amount of free/open-source extensions, even I
haven't been able to think of an extension that I would pay for.

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roystonvassey
NoScript. Doesn't allow memory-draining, unnecessary JS and allows me to
browse new sites without worrying if I'll be into JS hell.

Plus, I also mentally make notes of what sites have the fewest scripts and
stick to them instead of competitors that don't.

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spaceboy
Genuinely scared to list the plugins I use because it would fingerprint[1] me
specifically

[1]
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=757726](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=757726)

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taweqwqd
I generally use Adguard to stop annoying ads. I also use Nymeria
([https://www.nymeria.io](https://www.nymeria.io)) for lead generation on
LinkedIn/GitHub and I use 1Password for password management.

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sh87
mercury reader. This is probably the single most important factor in
increasing the amount I've read in the last 2 months (since I found it).

Google Dictionary.

Pocket - Been using this for a long time. Wish they had more features but this
works.

OneTab - Don't use it frequently but boy has it been there when I needed it.

Sidewise - Been using it for a few weeks. Light use but useful.

AdBlock Plus - It's just there in the backgound. Not sure if it really makes a
difference.

Momentum - I like to see gorgeous pictures instead of a blank page with
Google's searchbox when I open a blank tab.

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forzo
Vimium, Sreak, One Tab, WhatFont, Awesome Screenshot, Window Resizer, and
uBlock Origin.

~~~
lensi
Awesome Screenshot tracks you, or did. I haven't been following.

------
thebigkick
Wapperly (I think it's called) shows me what the website/web app is built
with, Vue dev tools, Panda.

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akulbe
LastPass, Pocket, Google Drive, OneTab, OneNote, Buffer, uBlock Origin,
Ghostery (and several more)

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jwilk
I would not be willing to use any extension that is not free software.

I want the code to be auditable and hackable.

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Inconel
Chrome - uBlock Origin

FF - uBlock Origin, Decentraleyes, Random Agent Spoofer, Self-Destructing
Cookies

~~~
silvaben
Random Agent Spoofer seems like a good one. Trying it out on FF now.

~~~
jwilk
Random Agent Spoofer reminds me of:
[https://xkcd.com/1105/](https://xkcd.com/1105/)

~~~
spaceboy
Number plates should be in Base58
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base58](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base58)

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0x54MUR41
uBlock Origin and Evernote Web Clipper. I only use Mozilla Firefox, though.

~~~
wirddin
Off-topic but why do you (still) use Firefox? Is it speed? Because I have
tried switching just to come back to Chrome.

~~~
Mathnerd314
For me it's the tab overflow behavior: Firefox has the left/right arrows and a
dropdown menu, while Chrome just has tiny tabs:
[http://www.ghacks.net/2013/11/07/dealing-google-chromes-
tab-...](http://www.ghacks.net/2013/11/07/dealing-google-chromes-tab-overflow-
issue/). And I have 31 tabs open now (sometimes 200+) so it would be a daily
problem.

~~~
Lordarminius
> I have 31 tabs open now (sometimes 200+) each this level How do you achieve
> this? Firefox for me tends to crash long before I reach this level

~~~
Wofiel
Not parent, but I've had well over two thousand tabs in Firefox + Tree Style
Tabs before. They're usually accumulated over a number of sessions. If you
don't open a tab, the page itself isn't actually loader yet, so very, very
rarely are more than 100 or so actually loaded. Every now I'll go through and
cull, but my browsing experience is never really inhibited by them.

For me it's 100% how I browse now, I don't think I could go back. I only open
links in new tabs (which places them as branches in the tree) and it's a
wonderfully useful spatial/temporal way of showing history, which is also
saved between sessions (so bookmarks don't really replace them)

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sunshinejoy
Ad Blocker, SimiliarWeb, bitly, Momentum, DF YouTube, OneTab, CSSViewer.

------
wirddin
uBlock Origin, The Great Suspender, Tunello, ColorZilla & Pocket.

~~~
silvaben
Are you using the Premium version of Pocket? Asking because extensions are a
big part of their entire product offering.

~~~
wirddin
Nope. And you can use it even if you aren't using their premium version. It
allows me to save some link (without opening) to my Pocket, save the current
page to my pocket and also puts a small link to websites with links (like HN)
to quick-save a link. Been using it since they launched it.

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Jackneill
uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere, Github Notifier, GitHub
Hovercard, WebRTC Network Limiter, Pinboard, Bitwarden, OneTab - chromium

