A VC - Latest Comments in Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Mark Cramer — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:58:43 -0000

http://www.addoncon.com/

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Mark Cramer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:45:33 -0000

The rule already has four exceptions mentioned in this post.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

fredwilson — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:18:04 -0000

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

Thanks

Fred

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Ron Feldman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:11:10 -0000

Fred - 1Password for Mac (http://agilewebsolutions.co... 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".

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

fredwilson — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:01:04 -0000

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

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Mark Cramer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:55:38 -0000

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/2... and there have been over 800 million add-on downloads on Mozilla alone (http://blog.mozilla.com/bas... <-- 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...

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

fredwilson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:58:06 -0000

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

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Mark Cramer — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:49:53 -0000

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.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

fredwilson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:30:06 -0000

Great exits and great businesses are not the same thing

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Mark Cramer — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:27:14 -0000

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?"

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Seth Lieberman — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:21:48 -0000

I haven't used screengrab but I *love* *love* *love* the fireshot plug into grab and edit screenshots quickly and easily.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Andraz Tori — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:19:59 -0000

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.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Paul Walsh — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:05:29 -0000

Here's a plug-in that's likely to be downloaded by a few people. It'll be for Google's new virtual world, 'Lively'. http://latimesblogs.latimes...

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.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

fredwilson — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:13:10 -0000

Right

Siteadvisor is probably the best example of a big browser extension win

Thanks Stan!

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

wanderingstan — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:47:36 -0000

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.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

fredwilson — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:56:03 -0000

Thanks for clarifying that Andraz

It's at times like this that I wish this blog was on WP or Drupal

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

kenberger — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:44:43 -0000

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/jour...

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Andraz Tori — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:12:45 -0000

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

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

wd40 — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:42:05 -0000

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 -

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

krishnan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:03:11 -0000

Also, one of the extensions where I see lot of potential for building a business model is feedly.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Krish — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:59:44 -0000

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).

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

Lucas — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:58:54 -0000

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.

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

fredwilson — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:46:07 -0000

Its alpha software that I've been playing with. Probably should not have showed that. Oops

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

wd40 — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:27:01 -0000

what's the story behind the deluux - 'label photos anywhere' - plugin? Can't find anything on it...

Re: Can You Build A Business On Browser Extensions?

jer979 — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:51:05 -0000

I will get a prototype and call you for funding ;-)