At Union Square Ventures we have backed a couple of companies that use browser plugins at the core of their services (Adaptive Blue, Zemanta). We have always been concerned about the potentially lower sign-up rates from requiring someone to install a plugin. The installation process on Firefox required an onerous restart (even for updates to already installed plugins!). In fact, our concern has been so significant that we have passed on a few opportunities that had plugins as central to their strategy. I believe that this could change dramatically in the near term. First, Chrome has an extension architecture that does not require a restart and allows for dynamic updates to plugins. Second, people seem to have no problem with installing apps on their phones. So what’s missing is a change in terminology - let’s call plugins browser apps - and a marketplace. The latter can help not just with discovery but also with ratings and safety. Now before anyone can even start to mention HTML5 - yes it’s great, but a plugin, I mean app, can still do more because it is user centric, not site centric. For instance, extension.fm can deliver its experience only because it sees music on all sites I go to!
Continuations: The Future of Browser Plugins (Hint: Let’s Call them Apps)
Albert Wenger absolutely nails it. Browser apps have huge potential and I’m thrilled to see Google leapfrogging Mozilla in terms of implementation. Like Albert and partners, most investors have been very cautious about investing in plugin-centric companies, even more so in China, where being innovative (or sometimes, trying new things in general) is often seen as a handicap.
While I was working as CTO at Linkool Labs (now part of Mozilla China), we built the first ever Firefox plugin to be pre-installed in any official release of the browser (see it in action here), which was a ‘huge’ deal at the time, but still proved to be a tough sell to investors.
Mozilla’s implementation has always been clunky, with the required restarts, (dramatically) changing specs between Firefox versions, and a heavily moderated marketplace. If you thought the App Store was restrictive, try a community powered version, where your competitor is “reviewing” (read: rejecting) your app for release and has full access to your plugin’s code.
