When Google determined the pull the advertise on Google Reader, I quickly made the adjustment to Feedly since it was (and still is) the perfect alternative to Google’s RSS Reader. The one most important piece that Feedly did not provide was a Chrome extension that would let users subscribe to RSS feeds on any web page with a click.
Since the extension was something that I required for my own workflow, I wrote one (writing a Chrome extension is easy) and also post it to Google Chrome store. The last time I examine my Chrome dashboard, the extension had reached 30000+ users on Chrome.
Monetizing google chrome extensions is difficult
One sunrise I got an email from someone ( I tried Googling her name but it deliverd no results ) asking me if I would be interested in selling the Feedly Chrome extension. It was a 4-figure proposal for something that had taken an hour to initiate and I agreed to the deal. I had no idea about the buyer and was also strange to know why would anyone pay this kind of money for such a simple Chrome extension.
The extension was sold, they post the money via PayPal and I send the ownership of the extension to a specific Google Account. It was a silky transition.
A month later, the new holder of the Feedly extension pushed an update to the Chrome store. No, the update didn’t bring any latest features to the table nor contained any error fixes. Instead, they include advertising into the extension.
These aren’t regular banner ads that you see on website pages, these are hidden ads that work the background and substitute links on every website that you visit into associate with links. In simple English, if the extension is activated in Chrome, it will introduce adware into all web pages.
No surprises, the ranking of the extension have recently plummeted at the Chrome store but the business version of the buyer is simple – they purchase popular add-ons, place affiliate links and the amplitude of users would never observe this since the Chrome browser automatically bring up to date add-ons in the background. And there are no changelogs either.
The extension does provide an option to opt-out of advertising (you are opted-in by default) or you can defuse them on your own by blocking the domain www.superfish.com in your hosting list but in secret ads doesn’t sound like the most ethical way to monetize a result.
It was probably a bad concept to sell the Chrome add-on and am very sorry if you' re an existing user. Meanwhile, you can go through the Feedly bookmarklet for the adware-free experience.
Since the extension was something that I required for my own workflow, I wrote one (writing a Chrome extension is easy) and also post it to Google Chrome store. The last time I examine my Chrome dashboard, the extension had reached 30000+ users on Chrome.
Monetizing google chrome extensions is difficult
One sunrise I got an email from someone ( I tried Googling her name but it deliverd no results ) asking me if I would be interested in selling the Feedly Chrome extension. It was a 4-figure proposal for something that had taken an hour to initiate and I agreed to the deal. I had no idea about the buyer and was also strange to know why would anyone pay this kind of money for such a simple Chrome extension.
The extension was sold, they post the money via PayPal and I send the ownership of the extension to a specific Google Account. It was a silky transition.
A month later, the new holder of the Feedly extension pushed an update to the Chrome store. No, the update didn’t bring any latest features to the table nor contained any error fixes. Instead, they include advertising into the extension.
These aren’t regular banner ads that you see on website pages, these are hidden ads that work the background and substitute links on every website that you visit into associate with links. In simple English, if the extension is activated in Chrome, it will introduce adware into all web pages.
No surprises, the ranking of the extension have recently plummeted at the Chrome store but the business version of the buyer is simple – they purchase popular add-ons, place affiliate links and the amplitude of users would never observe this since the Chrome browser automatically bring up to date add-ons in the background. And there are no changelogs either.
The extension does provide an option to opt-out of advertising (you are opted-in by default) or you can defuse them on your own by blocking the domain www.superfish.com in your hosting list but in secret ads doesn’t sound like the most ethical way to monetize a result.
It was probably a bad concept to sell the Chrome add-on and am very sorry if you' re an existing user. Meanwhile, you can go through the Feedly bookmarklet for the adware-free experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment