

Experience porting a Firefox add-on to a Chrome extension - sekizaru
http://sidthemonkey.com/blog/2009/12/porting-a-firefox-add-on-to-a-chrome-extension/

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extension
The big big difference between the platforms is that extensions are sandboxed
on Chrome. I'm convinced that this is the only way to go. Free-reign
extensions inevitably lead to instability and support is a nightmare because
you can never be certain of what is going on in your own app.

However, the sandboxing is severely limiting. Extensions get a separate JS
environment for each tab and they can only communicate through async
messaging. This makes global state, like user settings, a pain in the arse. I
think they can do better than this while remaining secure.

And of course, you can only extend the browser using the specific hooks it
provides, which currently doesn't include much in the way of user interface
modification. I'm sure that more hooks will be provided in the future.

They did a great job of keeping it simple though. Nearly everything is done
through standard JS/HTML/DOM. XPCOM will not be missed.

And now for the plug, though it might not work yet:
[https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ljecomdaijmibeca...](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ljecomdaijmibecakcpjadigpfkollbh)

