A VC: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?
ceonyc
· 1 year ago
I was literally just saying "no" the other day to someone. In fact, I'd generally say that no service should ever be built with only one way to get data in and one day to get data out.
Jeffrey
· 1 year ago
Whether something "should" be built is very different that whether something could be built or whether it will succeed as a business. By your yardstick, most large web businesses today should have never been built.
ceonyc
· 1 year ago
Not true... most large web businesses today have multiple ways to get data both into and out of their applications.
Google, for example, has websites, APIs, browser plugins, mobile software, mobile sites, an IM client.... Salesforce has mobile apps, a platform, a site, plugins from Outlook.
vincentvw
· 1 year ago
I think it depends on how you define business. It seems to me that developing browser-extensions makes for a good business-card if your seeking employment in software-development. Similar to blogging, which also has an indirect value as a CV-add-on.
As a direct revenue-stream, it completely depends on how well-though-out the business-model is. And in this case a "broader service" does seem the best way to go. At the same time, with the entry-barriers of javascript on an open source platform being so low, I imagine that it's a dog-eat-dog world.
vruz
· 1 year ago
your reasoning is correct.
Even if we love Firefox and it's arguably the best web browser ever, its marketshare in the US is around 20% (take or give 10, depending on who you ask) Even having a totally geeky public, I never see Firefox passing the 2 thirds mark. If the plugins in question could run on Internet Explorer that would be an entirely different thing, reaching more than a 90% of the market.
That being said, I can see a market of plugins for the enterprise, where you can rely on a given browser version set as the company standard. (say for example, a newsfeeds ticker, an integrated blogging tool, etc.)
Other business models:
I absolutely love Zotero. (www.zotero.org) and I can totally see how a company could profit from creating services around it.
leigh
· 1 year ago
I just started using a competitor to Zortero, Firefox extension ibreadcrumbs. As someone whose Firefox browser almost always crashes while I'm doing research (it could be my 30 open tabs and multiple windows) I'm' also loving it.
vruz
· 1 year ago
I'm gonna have a look at it. thanks for the heads up.
Eric Willis
· 1 year ago
I would have to agree. Simply stated, the purpose of business is to create a customer. This simple definition has changed somewhat. It meant to create a customer that enters into a financial transaction with the business in some shape or manner. Now, the term customer is used in a much broader sense. However, if the goal is to build a sustainable business.. one that operates profitably over long periods of time, a business will need to enter into profitable relationships with its customers. The browser extension market, as stated, unfortunately, it not one that easily lends itself to creating those types of relationships. In that sense, I have to agree with Fred... A browser extension can lead to filling a niche need..or in cases stated above...lead to an acquisition by a larger firm if the extension can get to critical mass. However, in the more constrained sense of what a "business" really is in its simplest form, I think the chances of building a profitable business in the browser extension market are slim indeed.
Kevin Marshall
· 1 year ago
I think there could be money in blocking...if they aggregate all the data about what blocking is going on, I would think that data would be quite valuable to marketers (both what sites have the most blocked data and what ads are being blocked the most)...if you can pay a small fee to get a report about where/what campaings you are running are being blocked I'm sure mid-to-large size marketers would pay.
As far as browser extensions go, I think they are a smart way to test an idea that requires broad acceptance before the real value can be recognized...it seems much easier to get plugin installs than eyeballs to yet another new site/service...but I think the draw to building a full fledged site/service is too enticing and so eventually all the 'good' browser extensions get sucked down that path...
gregorylent
· 1 year ago
i would pay big money for adblock, do they call that subscription? ... i really dislike ads, they change the vibe for the worse of everything they are found on. for me. i don't own a tv because of ads. newspapers and mags, i can gloss over in my own time frame, and in mags, they are at least attractive.
tmarman
· 1 year ago
I agree that you need more than just a browser extension - at least to build a business at a scale that VCs etc would be interested in. As @vruz points out, the simple truth is that Firefox itself is miniscule in terms of the reach of a plain old website - and so it's really hard to show the kind of growth and numbers that you would be looking for. If Twitter only had IM or SMS support, it wouldn't have nearly the number of users - rather, the web interface is the "baseline" and all of those other interfaces add to it.
That is the beauty of a "platform" - content generated even on a small, niche shard benefit the rest of the platform. I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of, say, the delicious content generated via the browser extension vs. the regular website. For one, it seems like geeky users who installed it are more likely to contribute in the first place (that top 10% of content creators). And for me, I know I interacted with delicious much less - particularly on the creation side - when I first upgraded to FF3 and the plugin wasn't available yet or when I was at my old job that only had IE (before the new toolbar was released).
santhonys
· 1 year ago
Browser extension as a business seems like a tough road, but it can be a great way to grow a brand/platform (a la delicious). You note that the geeky extensions aren't mass market... and Firefox itself is already a pretty geeky subset. But, extensions are a great way for building name recognition with trendsetting geeks.
ScribeFire (http://www.scribefire.com) is one of my favorite extensions that's a multi-platform blogging editor that publishes via web services, and I think they've got an interesting model. While they're only downloaded ~12,000 x/week, they're targeting power bloggers. Recently, they launched an aggregate ad serving service (also for bloggers) which I imagine is how they plan to monotize.
gregorylent
· 1 year ago
when the home-run mentality of much of the startup world starts to level out, small businesses will be more acceptable ... (rather than a few people making big money, more people making some money is what i see coming) ... and any business that supports a family or three is business enough ...
Jeffrey
· 1 year ago
In my experience, for commercial opportunities to appear on a platform, the platform provider (in this case, Mozilla) would have to buy into that notion completely and provide ways to support it. There is certainly a new generation of browser extensions (and XUL applications, etc.) to be built if Mozilla were to at least put a stake in the ground regarding commercialization of apps built for Firefox.
jon
· 1 year ago
notice that some of those "successful" browser extension businesses are gathering rather interesting data. Stumbleupon and delicious can shed light on the way their acquiring businesses (ebay, yahoo) can help user discover products and content. I would also think that add ons that offer a broadcasting functionality (preferably multi platform) could also do well.
prostoalex
· 1 year ago
FoxyTunes is also a Yahoo! property now, I believe, for undisclosed amount.
Jeremy Pepper
· 1 year ago
You could extend the full thesis to so many different platforms: can you build a business on MySpace or Facebook applications? Can you build a business on iPhone alone? Can you build a business if your iPhone application relies on jail breaking the phone?
You would think the answer would be no to all these questions (well, a no with an asterisk), but it really depends on how well these businesses can be sold to VCs and consumers.
lawrence
· 1 year ago
Jeremy, I think you're absolutely right. This question applies to all edge businesses - widgets, apps, browser extensions, API users, etc. For now, I think you need to go hub and spoke and make sure that you are building out a destination site with the activity that is taking place at the edge.
Max Niederhofer
· 1 year ago
So here's an interesting follow-up question - can you build a business on a toolbar? I find myself saying "toolbar" to a lot of people pitching FF extensions, but I don't actually think that's a terribly valid suggestion.
Max at Atlas Venture P.S. Let's meet while you're in London?
aweissman
· 1 year ago
I think you can build a business on any distribution platform - including as a browser extension - if that business provides enough utility to users to overcome the pain and friction of adoption of a new service. That being said, a browser extension does involve significant friction between end-user utility and adoption, to wit: a user user must become aware of the extension, find the place to download it, add it to the browser, restart the browser, then customize the extension. All that before using it.
That's at least 4 or 5 steps (friction points) before the user gets the experience the utility of the extension, and I always figured that at each step one will lose some portion of the users for which the friction is too great.
So another general way of thinking about this is: how can a business reduce the friction it takes for a user to experience the utility of that application? And in many cases, the right answer may be to NOT start a business as a browser extension, but as something with fewer steps involved to get the users to actually using your stuff to solve their pain. Then, and maybe only then, do you add more steps into the process - more friction - to provide added benefit to users who are already experiencing utility. To me, delicious is a good example of this process.
kenberger
· 1 year ago
It's besides the point here, but Google Browser Sync is in this list, which won't work w/ Firefox 3 (if there's a hack i'd love to know about it, and forget Weave-- hardly a replacement).
It seems notable that either you decided against the very popular browser upgrade, or 1 or more of your extensions (including GBS) was incompatible and they are so important to you that it's worth sacrificing the upgrade improvements (which I've found to be significant).
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
It's the latter ken
I really need GBS and won't upgrade until FF3 supports it
johnolilly
· 1 year ago
fred, google isn't going to support GBS fro Firefox 3 -- you'll have to ask them why they made that decision. there are a couple of alternatives, although not as comprehensive (in the case of Foxmarks) or as mature (in the case of Weave from Mozilla Labs)
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Wow. That's a bummer. I'll have to try the others out
kenberger
· 1 year ago
Save your time and disappointment for now. Neither Foxmarks nor Weave today will give you the main thing I assume you want-- FF tab state sync across your machines (your bookmarks are already taken care of via delicious). You might also want history and cookies sync too but read on.
Turns out that Google officially encouraged Mozilla to put FF in the cloud themselves (via Weave) and didn't want GBS to be used or hackable going forward, so made it super tough to hack FF3 to allow GBS.
But the new 0.2 version of Weave has proven way too green so far across my machines as to reliability and performance, and the tab sync design isn't nearly as simple as GBS. So I've had to yank it from all.
So I'm w/ you about not wanting to give up GSB, BUT have found FF3 incredibly more stable (memory leak stuff, particularly on lower-RAM'ed or slower laptops), therefore living without sync, albeit difficultly.
The background of the whole thing boils down to an interesting open source vs commercial discussion. It's also notable that Google did listen to the huge disappointment at their decision and in the past week has now offered GBS as open source, so we'll see if a good solution emerges soon. http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2008/...
jer979
· 1 year ago
how about a del.icio.us of browser extensions?
I found your screenshot to be valuable and I'd love to know what extensions my friends are using and then (maybe a Digg format) have them rank them up and down so I download the best ones.
So, what if there was a service that showed a real-time "extension roll" which I could share out?
Don't know if it's a business, but it'd be cool and a nice network aggregation play
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
That's a damn good idea
jer979
· 1 year ago
I will get a prototype and call you for funding ;-)
Clay
· 1 year ago
I have a feeling something will come along that will change your opinion...
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Can you elaborate?
Edwin Khodabakchian
· 1 year ago
I think that mozilla/firefox could really change the answer to this question if 1) their market share continues to increase and 2) they continue to more addons.mozilla.org into some kind of application store. Because as the barrier to adding an "add-on" decreases, the key question will not be geek or not geek but how is an extension allowing you to offer a superior experience: Cooliris PicLens is good example.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Piclens is awesome
vincentvw
· 1 year ago
As with all things, i think there's money in making useful stuff. In the case of browsers, the biggest pain (for me) is managing information and bridging the desktop-internet gap. Anything that helps me filter information better and gives me better tools to manipulate text, pictures, and perhaps video, is a nice app in my book.
And I think someone should start a precedent, develop a complex extension, and START CHARGING MONEY FOR IT. Similar to the extensions that are being built for Photoshop or similar commercial packages, and even for Safari. All this working for free or ads… no wonder people aren't making money.
Anybody want to go code it? :)
P.S. I think there's also wonders to be made with the use of bookmarklets attached to a payware-software or -webware. Lot's of Mac-apps that work that way.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
I think a freemium approach would be best if you want to charge
Anthony Papillion
· 1 year ago
I think it's possible to build a business around browser extensions but you probably can't be a community friendly corporate citizen if you do. IMHO, the only way to create a business modal around browser extensions is to control both sides of the stream. Create a proprietary service with a proprietary API that you fully control. Then, drive up interests in your product/service and create a browswer extension that makes accessing your service easier.
Notice though that, as Fred pointed out in his post, this modal is really a hybrid. It's not a pure browser extension business. It has a backend service that is controlled by the developers of the extension. Also notice that my scenerio requires stuff (API's, etc) to be closed. If you open it up, someone will come and kill your extension selling empire by developing an open and free extension to it. End of game. You're out of business.
So, yes, I believe you can create a business out of browser extensions. But it's really hard and your software development and business genius are probably better spent pursuing other things. There are a lot of really cool problems out there to solve and one of them will make you a million dollars.
issackelly
· 1 year ago
"big and sustainable" does not need to mean "mainstream audience". It's about reaching the right audience for your business.
It may not be possible for a company you define as big, one that would take VC, and is looking for 20 or 30x ROI, but for a personal business for a developer or two, my guess is that you could build something 'big and sustainable' enough to quit a few day jobs and maybe even retire on.
Many cite that FF is not over a 1/3 of browser usage. How many other businesses target WAY less than 1/3 of the populace? Guitars? Camping Equipt?
There are a lot of roadblocks to consider, namely that browser extensions aren't (in very generalized terms) difficult to replicate. What I mean, is that if you make one, and charge for it, and are successful: somebody else will see the value in it, and make it for free.
wd40
· 1 year ago
what's the story behind the deluux - 'label photos anywhere' - plugin? Can't find anything on it...
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Its alpha software that I've been playing with. Probably should not have showed that. Oops
wd40
· 1 year ago
figured as much - the reasons I asked were a.) its a nickname of mine (see: post verification email address ;) and b.) public yc info points to something somewhat compelling -
Lucas
· 1 year ago
It's not really a question of whether extensions are a business but of how the mechanics of extensions fit your business objectives.
Client-side software has fewer users but more engagement and stickiness. The users you do have either spend a lot more time with your software or are much more committed to it. So if you're a business living in a web site, you can grow your (average but not median) engagement and lower your churn by growing features on the client side.
Or at least that's how it should work. There are obviously would-be businesses with client-side products that have low time spent and high churn.
Krish
· 1 year ago
Business opportunity with Adblock? No way. If they ever try to make money, they will get demolished by lawsuits. There is no business opportunity when the extension is in the process of killing business (not that there is anything wrong with their approach).
krishnan
· 1 year ago
Also, one of the extensions where I see lot of potential for building a business model is feedly.
andraz
· 1 year ago
I'd like to point out that Zemanta doesn't belong to "browser extension only" category.
While Zemanta has browser extensions for both Firefox and IE, these are not the only delivery mechanisms. There are server-side plugins for Wordpress, MovableType and Drupal. And where this isn't enough there is an API available.
As other commenters have observed browser extension is usually just one way how to deliver functionality to the user.
-- Andraz from Zemanta
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Thanks for clarifying that Andraz
It's at times like this that I wish this blog was on WP or Drupal
wanderingstan
· 1 year ago
As someone who started a company based on a Firefox/IE extension, I can confirm from the trenches that it is a bad idea make it the sole product for a company. At Lijit, we morphed the idea into a widget, which turns out to be a much better fit for the idea and gives us a broader reach. AdaptiveBlue also made the transition into widget-world, as did Me.dium.
Browser Extensions also suffer from the problem that they are *installed* software. Unlike widgets, social network applications, or websites, you have to worry with a host of problems: supporting old versions, encouraging upgrades, dealing with compatibility problems, etc...
You forgot one other browser extension success story: SiteAdvisor (a New York company) sold to McAfee for a reputed $70million back in 2006.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Right
Siteadvisor is probably the best example of a big browser extension win
Thanks Stan!
andraz
· 1 year ago
Actually you don't need to have all those backward-compatibility problems if you do it right.
Extension can be a 'delivery mechanism' that triggers in the right context, couple of lines of javascript. GUI logic is then loaded from the web and all the brains lie in the API anyway. No problems with upgrading then.
If you build your application right your widget and extension are actually the same code. The only difference is where and when they appear.
BTW, my company (Segala) has a FF extension which is endorsed by the W3C as one of the most compelling implementations of the Semantic Web - we've been sitting on it for about two years - we plan to start with the continued development very soon.
Seth Lieberman
· 1 year ago
I haven't used screengrab but I *love* *love* *love* the fireshot plug into grab and edit screenshots quickly and easily.
mcramer
· 1 year ago
One might be an exception to the rule, but if you have at least four great examples of businesses that have been built using browser extensions, then how can the answer be "no?"
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Great exits and great businesses are not the same thing
mcramer
· 1 year ago
The title of your post is "Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?" That being said, by your own admission you call them "notable successes." I assumed that you were referring to the exits since you went to trouble of quantifying them numerically.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
That's true. I am not sure I made the distinction in the post, but I should have
If someone pays 40mm or 75mm for a browser extenstion they must think it will be a good business or a good addition to their business
mcramer
· 1 year ago
We obviously have a vested interest in this debate (by the way, please feel free to add our extension to your list - we think you'll like it and would love to hear your feedback), so our take is that the "extension" is simply one of many possible channels of distribution, but the key factor for "success" is the value delivered by the product.
SiteAdvisor has been downloaded over 135 million times (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/05/yahoo-flag...) and there have been over 800 million add-on downloads on Mozilla alone (http://blog.mozilla.com/basil/2008/06/29/state-... <-- check out the stats on this page) so we think the browser extension channel is pretty big. And it's only going to get bigger as "personalizing" the web experience become more mainstream. If you like, you can think of extensions as desktop applications for the web, made easy. Many businesses have had fabulous successes, and exits, building desktop applications.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on whether or not you can build a business on Facebook or the iPhone. Perhaps the next post...
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
You can absolutely build a big business on FB apps. Our portfolio company Zynga has done it already
And I am equally confident it can be done with iphone apps
That's the subtext of the browser extension question I asked. I am not as confident that browser extenstions are a strong platform from which to build a business
That said, siteadvisor may well be the exception that proves the rule
mcramer
· 1 year ago
The rule already has four exceptions mentioned in this post.
Ron Feldman
· 1 year ago
Fred - 1Password for Mac (http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password) is an amazing plugin (& client to be fair) that manages all your passwords, but mainly functions through the browser. It works on the iPhone too and I think that will make it even more successful. Not sure how big of a business it is, but they actually charge for it.....
Xoopit is a browser plugin specifically for GMAIL that has raised significant funding and has broader ambitions for other webmail services.
Surf Canyon, not unlike Site Advisor improves your search experience seamlessly.
I think that two trends will make browser extenstions very real businesses:
1. As Firefox becomes more pervasive and the broader public becomes more aware of extensions, they will (not unlike Facebook applications) become a more mainstream part of the web.
2. The trend towards webapps means that as more mainstream users spend most of their time within the browser (webmail, blogs, facebook, google apps, etc.) , browser extensions stand a chance of becoming new core "software".
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Good points and thanks for the recommendations
I think the second point in particular is important and was not part of my thinking until now
My startup, Pluribo (http://www.pluribo.com), just launched this past week. A browser extension was our first product, so we have done a lot of thinking about your specific question, Fred.
In general, we think of a browser extension as being just another distribution channel for our technology. It has some nice properties that make it a very natural fit for a service like ours-- it allows us to dynamically process content anywhere on the web, without requiring people to go to an external website (and interrupting their workflow). That's why we decided to start with this approach.
However, recognizing that the economics of most web-based businesses are low margin and high volume, it's going to be difficult to build a large business (read: VC-backed) based on browser extensions alone. There just aren't enough tech-savvy people who know how to install and manage browser plugins. That is why we plan to follow up our firefox extension with more mainstream distribution channels.
P.S. Like you, we're also based in NYC, so we particularly appreciate the perspective your blog brings to the high tech world.
Al
· 1 year ago
Pluribo is very cool indeed.
Mashing up separate data resources with browser extensions or greasemonkey scripts can be quite useful. perhaps not always as a business on their own, but they have potential to augment / add value to existing products in a way that helps your startup business to grow and be more efficient. Scripts also provide a great tool for experimenting on data integration, user interface, and stickiness.
For example, I wrote a greasemonkey script that adds links to your salesforce.com account and contact lists to various news sites, and linkedin. This can be very helpful for sales teams in just about any sort of company.
All Comments
data both into and out of their applications.
Google, for example, has websites, APIs, browser plugins, mobile
software, mobile sites, an IM client.... Salesforce has mobile apps,
a platform, a site, plugins from Outlook.
As a direct revenue-stream, it completely depends on how well-though-out the business-model is. And in this case a "broader service" does seem the best way to go. At the same time, with the entry-barriers of javascript on an open source platform being so low, I imagine that it's a dog-eat-dog world.
Even if we love Firefox and it's arguably the best web browser ever, its marketshare in the US is around 20% (take or give 10, depending on who you ask)
Even having a totally geeky public, I never see Firefox passing the 2 thirds mark.
If the plugins in question could run on Internet Explorer that would be an entirely different thing, reaching more than a 90% of the market.
That being said, I can see a market of plugins for the enterprise, where you can rely on a given browser version set as the company standard.
(say for example, a newsfeeds ticker, an integrated blogging tool, etc.)
Other business models:
I absolutely love Zotero. (www.zotero.org) and I can totally see how a company could profit from creating services around it.
thanks for the heads up.
As far as browser extensions go, I think they are a smart way to test an idea that requires broad acceptance before the real value can be recognized...it seems much easier to get plugin installs than eyeballs to yet another new site/service...but I think the draw to building a full fledged site/service is too enticing and so eventually all the 'good' browser extensions get sucked down that path...
That is the beauty of a "platform" - content generated even on a small, niche shard benefit the rest of the platform. I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of, say, the delicious content generated via the browser extension vs. the regular website. For one, it seems like geeky users who installed it are more likely to contribute in the first place (that top 10% of content creators). And for me, I know I interacted with delicious much less - particularly on the creation side - when I first upgraded to FF3 and the plugin wasn't available yet or when I was at my old job that only had IE (before the new toolbar was released).
ScribeFire (http://www.scribefire.com) is one of my favorite extensions that's a multi-platform blogging editor that publishes via web services, and I think they've got an interesting model. While they're only downloaded ~12,000 x/week, they're targeting power bloggers. Recently, they launched an aggregate ad serving service (also for bloggers) which I imagine is how they plan to monotize.
I would also think that add ons that offer a broadcasting functionality (preferably multi platform) could also do well.
You would think the answer would be no to all these questions (well, a no with an asterisk), but it really depends on how well these businesses can be sold to VCs and consumers.
Max at Atlas Venture
P.S. Let's meet while you're in London?
That's at least 4 or 5 steps (friction points) before the user gets the experience the utility of the extension, and I always figured that at each step one will lose some portion of the users for which the friction is too great.
So another general way of thinking about this is: how can a business reduce the friction it takes for a user to experience the utility of that application? And in many cases, the right answer may be to NOT start a business as a browser extension, but as something with fewer steps involved to get the users to actually using your stuff to solve their pain. Then, and maybe only then, do you add more steps into the process - more friction - to provide added benefit to users who are already experiencing utility. To me, delicious is a good example of this process.
It seems notable that either you decided against the very popular browser upgrade, or 1 or more of your extensions (including GBS) was incompatible and they are so important to you that it's worth sacrificing the upgrade improvements (which I've found to be significant).
I really need GBS and won't upgrade until FF3 supports it
Turns out that Google officially encouraged Mozilla to put FF in the cloud themselves (via Weave) and didn't want GBS to be used or hackable going forward, so made it super tough to hack FF3 to allow GBS.
But the new 0.2 version of Weave has proven way too green so far across my machines as to reliability and performance, and the tab sync design isn't nearly as simple as GBS. So I've had to yank it from all.
So I'm w/ you about not wanting to give up GSB, BUT have found FF3 incredibly more stable (memory leak stuff, particularly on lower-RAM'ed or slower laptops), therefore living without sync, albeit difficultly.
The background of the whole thing boils down to an interesting open source vs commercial discussion. It's also notable that Google did listen to the huge disappointment at their decision and in the past week has now offered GBS as open source, so we'll see if a good solution emerges soon.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2008/...
I found your screenshot to be valuable and I'd love to know what extensions my friends are using and then (maybe a Digg format) have them rank them up and down so I download the best ones.
So, what if there was a service that showed a real-time "extension roll" which I could share out?
Don't know if it's a business, but it'd be cool and a nice network aggregation play
And I think someone should start a precedent, develop a complex extension, and START CHARGING MONEY FOR IT. Similar to the extensions that are being built for Photoshop or similar commercial packages, and even for Safari. All this working for free or ads… no wonder people aren't making money.
Anybody want to go code it? :)
P.S. I think there's also wonders to be made with the use of bookmarklets attached to a payware-software or -webware. Lot's of Mac-apps that work that way.
Notice though that, as Fred pointed out in his post, this modal is really a hybrid. It's not a pure browser extension business. It has a backend service that is controlled by the developers of the extension. Also notice that my scenerio requires stuff (API's, etc) to be closed. If you open it up, someone will come and kill your extension selling empire by developing an open and free extension to it. End of game. You're out of business.
So, yes, I believe you can create a business out of browser extensions. But it's really hard and your software development and business genius are probably better spent pursuing other things. There are a lot of really cool problems out there to solve and one of them will make you a million dollars.
It may not be possible for a company you define as big, one that would take VC, and is looking for 20 or 30x ROI, but for a personal business for a developer or two, my guess is that you could build something 'big and sustainable' enough to quit a few day jobs and maybe even retire on.
Many cite that FF is not over a 1/3 of browser usage. How many other businesses target WAY less than 1/3 of the populace? Guitars? Camping Equipt?
There are a lot of roadblocks to consider, namely that browser extensions aren't (in very generalized terms) difficult to replicate. What I mean, is that if you make one, and charge for it, and are successful: somebody else will see the value in it, and make it for free.
Client-side software has fewer users but more engagement and stickiness. The users you do have either spend a lot more time with your software or are much more committed to it. So if you're a business living in a web site, you can grow your (average but not median) engagement and lower your churn by growing features on the client side.
Or at least that's how it should work. There are obviously would-be businesses with client-side products that have low time spent and high churn.
only" category.
While Zemanta has browser extensions for both Firefox and IE, these are
not the only delivery mechanisms. There are server-side plugins for
Wordpress, MovableType and Drupal. And where this isn't enough there is
an API available.
As other commenters have observed browser extension is usually just one
way how to deliver functionality to the user.
-- Andraz from Zemanta
It's at times like this that I wish this blog was on WP or Drupal
Browser Extensions also suffer from the problem that they are *installed* software. Unlike widgets, social network applications, or websites, you have to worry with a host of problems: supporting old versions, encouraging upgrades, dealing with compatibility problems, etc...
You forgot one other browser extension success story: SiteAdvisor (a New York company) sold to McAfee for a reputed $70million back in 2006.
Siteadvisor is probably the best example of a big browser extension win
Thanks Stan!
Extension can be a 'delivery mechanism' that triggers in the right context, couple of lines of javascript. GUI logic is then loaded from the web and all the brains lie in the API anyway. No problems with upgrading then.
If you build your application right your widget and extension are actually the same code. The only difference is where and when they appear.
BTW, my company (Segala) has a FF extension which is endorsed by the W3C as one of the most compelling implementations of the Semantic Web - we've been sitting on it for about two years - we plan to start with the continued development very soon.
If someone pays 40mm or 75mm for a browser extenstion they must think it will be a good business or a good addition to their business
SiteAdvisor has been downloaded over 135 million times (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/05/yahoo-flag...) and there have been over 800 million add-on downloads on Mozilla alone (http://blog.mozilla.com/basil/2008/06/29/state-... <-- check out the stats on this page) so we think the browser extension channel is pretty big. And it's only going to get bigger as "personalizing" the web experience become more mainstream. If you like, you can think of extensions as desktop applications for the web, made easy. Many businesses have had fabulous successes, and exits, building desktop applications.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on whether or not you can build a business on Facebook or the iPhone. Perhaps the next post...
And I am equally confident it can be done with iphone apps
That's the subtext of the browser extension question I asked. I am not as confident that browser extenstions are a strong platform from which to build a business
That said, siteadvisor may well be the exception that proves the rule
Xoopit is a browser plugin specifically for GMAIL that has raised significant funding and has broader ambitions for other webmail services.
Surf Canyon, not unlike Site Advisor improves your search experience seamlessly.
I think that two trends will make browser extenstions very real businesses:
1. As Firefox becomes more pervasive and the broader public becomes more aware of extensions, they will (not unlike Facebook applications) become a more mainstream part of the web.
2. The trend towards webapps means that as more mainstream users spend most of their time within the browser (webmail, blogs, facebook, google apps, etc.) , browser extensions stand a chance of becoming new core "software".
I think the second point in particular is important and was not part of my thinking until now
Thanks
Fred
In general, we think of a browser extension as being just another distribution channel for our technology. It has some nice properties that make it a very natural fit for a service like ours-- it allows us to dynamically process content anywhere on the web, without requiring people to go to an external website (and interrupting their workflow). That's why we decided to start with this approach.
However, recognizing that the economics of most web-based businesses are low margin and high volume, it's going to be difficult to build a large business (read: VC-backed) based on browser extensions alone. There just aren't enough tech-savvy people who know how to install and manage browser plugins. That is why we plan to follow up our firefox extension with more mainstream distribution channels.
P.S. Like you, we're also based in NYC, so we particularly appreciate the perspective your blog brings to the high tech world.
Mashing up separate data resources with browser extensions or greasemonkey scripts can be quite useful. perhaps not always as a business on their own, but they have potential to augment / add value to existing products in a way that helps your startup business to grow and be more efficient. Scripts also provide a great tool for experimenting on data integration, user interface, and stickiness.
For example, I wrote a greasemonkey script that adds links to your salesforce.com account and contact lists to various news sites, and linkedin. This can be very helpful for sales teams in just about any sort of company.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/10955
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/16103
I keep other extensions I've written here.
http://japaninyourpalm.com/hacks/
Al