Over the past year I’ve been working with two friends on a product called Point.
It’s a chrome extension that enables you to privately share and discuss articles with friends, directly on top of any webpage.
Throughout our journey we’ve heard a number of questions — from the curious: “woah, it’s an extension?!” to healthy concerns: “it’s going to be impossible to grow as an extension!”
The extension space doesn’t get too much love, so for anyone thinking about building a browser extension, or curious about the benefits of developing one — I wanted to share a few of our insights from the past year.
“No one knows what a chrome extension is!”
One of the biggest points of concern is that most people are unfamiliar with extensions. This is likely true. Your average non-tech/non-app-loving friend probably isn’t too familiar with extensions.
I think this is partly because the term “extension” isn’t used in everyday language, like “app,” which is probably a result of far fewer extensions existing to begin with.
That said, does it really matter if people aren’t familiar with the term?
It only matters that you’re able to get them to your website, make them see value in the app, and then have them click a button to add it to their browser, right? At this point they can call it a plugin, a “thingy” for chrome, an addition to the browser, or whatever language they choose.
For example, AdBlock has over 60 million installs on Chrome, though I imagine less than half of their users refer to it as a chrome extension. I’ve heard it explained as “this thing that takes away the ads on websites” — which seems to be enough to draw intrigue.
One observation here is that some of the most popular extensions have been careful not to use the term at all — Pinterest calls their extension a “button,” while Evernote illustrates the value of their Web Clipper with a call to action that says “Download for Chrome.” With Point, we take a similar approach, saying “Get Point for Chrome!”
“It’s really hard to get adoption as a browser plugin.”
When we first started hearing this, we were a bit puzzled. Is it really going to be that hard? It’s 10x faster to download an extension than a mobile app, and the extension marketplace is much less crowded. How hard will it be to stand out when you’ve built something really useful?
Over time, we began to hear this concern stated more as fact than question, which made us wonder — why are people so dogmatic about this?
Historically, there haven’t been any home run platforms or services designed as chrome extensions. The backwards logic here is that no browser extension has gotten big because it’s hard or near impossible to get people to adopt and use them.
Through our trials in getting tons of non-techie friends (even moms and aunts) using, understanding and sticking with Point, we knew this couldn’t be the case. So we thought about this more carefully —what’s the real reason we haven’t seen any extensions sustain a user base on the order of magnitude of Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc. ?
I think there are a few reasons here:
- Lacking utility— A few major services like Facebook and Gmail actually do have browser extensions, though it seems that ~ .10% of their user base installs them. These low numbers seem to suggest that it’s impossible to get adoption; “even the big guys have a tough time getting their own users to install!” goes the thinking. However let’s look at these extensions a bit more closely. Both Facebook and Gmail have extensions that serve as notification trays to pull you back to the main site. Beyond that there’s not much utility. So the question is, would you download a Facebook extension that notified you when people liked your status? Eh, maybe. Would you rave about it — telling all of your friends to get it too? Likely not. This lack of utility, compounded with the limited to nil marketing of these extensions results in an exceptionally small portion of their user base a) finding the extension and b) wanting to use it.
- Single user utility applications — There are some phenomenally useful extensions like Pocket, Evernote, and Pinterest, so why don’t they have tens of millions of users? If we look at products that spread and grow to have enormous user bases, there needs to exist some networked utility — or an incredibly strong value prop to share the product with friends (like Dropbox). Many extensions are designed to be single user utility apps, so while I might find Pocket useful, I don’t have much of an incentive to spread the word. With these types of products, marketing and distributions channels get saturated quickly, which creates an upper limit on how big they can grow.
- Mobile focus — In the past 4–5 years there has been far less attention on web-first development (let alone extensions). Mobile is capturing mindshare and developer resources, so naturally we see less interesting apps and services designed as extensions.
“What are the most popular chrome browser plugins?”
-Adblock Plus— 60m+
-Gmail inbox checker—4m+
-Evernote web clipper—3m+
-Pinterest button — 2.5m+
These are some of the most frequent questions or points of concern we’ve heard. It’s also worth noting a number of hidden benefits of developing your app as an extension.
- Always in the browser / opportunities for re-engagement are high.
The extension lives in and on your browser. This allows you (as app developers) to insert app interactions on any webpage, or even above the browser itself via push notifications. Unlike a web platform that depends on constant email notifications and push re-engagement tactics, a browser plugin does not, so you can strategically show up when a user is looking for you ☺. - Doesn’t break existing workflow.
You’re able to seamlessly fit in where a user needs you most. Rapportive, for example shows you intelligent information about the people you email, directly alongside your gmail windows. Imagine if Rapportive was a separate tab you had to keep open, and had to run an email address as a search query to get information. It wouldn’t work. There are a lot of interesting opportunities to fit in with a users existing browsing experience and interaction. - Extension marketplace vs. Mobile app marketplace.
While your average mobile consumer can easily have 20+ apps on their phone, even your most avid extension user probably has at most 5–6 installed. Getting and retaining mindshare seems a bit easier as an extension. - Install, signup time, and attention.
With extensions, a visitor can convert to a user at with one click, in under 5 seconds. Compare this to 30 seconds to 1 minute for a mobile app install, and longer if your first point of discovery is on your laptop. With a mobile app install, you as a developer have to contend with an end user downloading your app in a variety of contexts (in a meeting, in the bathroom, while waiting in line at a coffee shop, etc.) whereas on the web you can be more comfortable with the context and level of attention you command. - Instant auto-updates.
Thankfully there’s no bureaucratic process at the Chrome store, so releasing changes to your app can happen in a matter of minutes, not days.
