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Do you know of anyone that is making money with a google extension

11 points by ashnyc ↗ HN
Can a monthly subscription business be build on a Google extension plugin. I have an idea for a google extension i wanted to know if you have seen any one charging a monthly service fee for extension.

7 comments

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nostromo
Google Search I assume? What kind of extension (browser plug-in)?
ashnyc
Yes browser plugin.
barrydahlberg
Not a monthly subscription, but generating plenty of buzz anyway:

http://rapportive.com/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/02/rapportive-funding/

Maybe something more like xobni but for gmail?

http://www.xobni.com/

ashnyc
yes rapportive is great, i use them. they have a lot of buzz but are at the mercy of Google. Google can kill them any day. As long as they are small, google will let them be, if they become big, i think google will complain because they are removing there ads.
pierrefar
Google won't complain: the users are actively installing a browser plugin on their own computers by choice to remove the ads, but more importantly get a great beneficial service.

It's no different than installing noscript or adblock on Firefox.

ashnyc
I think this is very different, it is targeting one specific application, gmail. Once rapportive is installed google cant monetize there user
binomial
Yes, absolutely, but do make addons for Firefox/IE too. See videos of the Add-on-Con conference, lots of people talk about their experiences building business on top of browser extensions. http://addoncon.com/