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This looks pretty neat.

I've been a happy Vimium[0] user for a few years now - it's an extension that adds Vim keybindings to Chrome (just like Vimperator for Firefox).

My main gripe with it, though, is that it doesn't work on many Google properties, like Google Groups. Because Google Groups insists on supplying its own keybindings (which, for the life of me, I can't figure out how to turn off), I always end up accidentally collapsing a thread every time I want to go back to the previous page ("H").

Disabling Javascript doesn't help, because Google Groups refuses to load without Javascript enabled.

I wonder if Ferro suffers from this same problem - I imagine it must, because I believe this has to do with the way that Chrome separates (or doesn't separate) the scripts run by extensions and the scripts run by the website.

[0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vimium/dbepggeogba...

Another feature I would want and I really feel handicapped about in vimium is that I cannot use the vim bindings when typing stuff in a textbox like this one.
Vimperator has a limited normal mode for textboxes, called "textarea mode". Press ctrl+t when in a textbox, and you can then use the usual vim movement/editing commands on the text. However it's far from a full implementation of vim editing, and is a bit buggy.

edit: It looks like the maintainer has sort of abandoned that feature, though, at least as of 2010, http://www.mozdev.org/pipermail/vimperator/2010-May/005475.h...

ctrl-I should open the text box in a proper editor.
You can set the editor with

    :set editor
For more details see

    :help editor
check vimium options - google.com subdomains come preinstalled as excluded URL's. I've removed them and happily use Vimium on google apps.
>just like Vimperator for Firefox

Vimperator is far more full-featured.

Exactly the reason why I switched from Chrome to Firefox. Chrome just does not allow extensions do certain things (like running in browser's special pages).
Vimium is mainly for in-page keyboard interactions (like opening a link or scrolling down). Ferro is for interacting with Chrome itself, for instance pinning a tab, saving/opening sessions, extension management, deleting bookmarks, etc.

Ferro does not suffer from the same keyboard shortcut problem as Vimium. Vimium injects code into every tab you have open (called "content scripts" in Chrome extensions) and uses javascript key listeners. Ferro uses the recently-introduced Chrome keyboard shortcut API. To manage your keyboard shortcuts for all extensions that use the API, go to "chrome://extensions" and click the "Keyboard shortcuts" link on the bottom-right.

Upon installing I get this creepy message: http://i.imgur.com/6MYin5b.png Are they really going to spy on my coinbase and stripe activities!?
I wonder what sort of success you'd have by doing social engineering like this:

    Show HN: Something something Chrome extension
Except it's actually malware.
I don't know about Ferro, but even vimium asks for this many permissions. I guess this due to the way it will handle shortcuts and bindings. I was hesitant to install vimium because of this but it is open source and the author seems to be someone famous so I can trust them. Related vimium ticket:

https://github.com/philc/vimium/issues/366

TL;DR: not very unexpected perhaps?

> to be someone famous so I can trust them

Do you use the same logic for political leaders?

Interestingly, Vimium's "Access your data on all websites" permissions can be less alarming than a similar notice only mentioning certain domains you care about, like stripe and coinbase.
Disclaimer: I do not have much of an expertise in web technologies, and I do not have bitcoins.

But when I look at http://www.getferro.com/#security, I see:

    Ferro does not transmit your personal information to nor
    store it on our servers. That includes, for instance, 
    your browsing history, bookmarks, and saved sessions. The     
    only personal information stored is your saved sessions, 
    and that is either stored on your computer, or if you 
    are signed into Chrome, on Chrome's sync servers, which 
    are secured by Google.

    The only dynamic content that is displayed to you and 
    did not originate from you is the list of recent 
    donations on the options page, and that data is escaped.
To those in the know, would they need access to your data to be able to send info from coinbase and stripe to you, or for donations?
I decided to uninstall because of this. It's a dealbreaker.
Ferro creator here. The answer is of course no, Ferro was not looking at your coinbase or stripe data. It was only loading the API scripts from those domains asynchronously in order to reduce the load time of the options page, and to do so it needed those domains in the permissions list. I just published v1.0.9, in which I have switched it back to the slow version and removed the coinbase/stripe permissions from the manifest. Once you receive the update (<1 hr), you can visit `chrome://extensions/` and click the Ferro "Permissions" link to confirm. For more information, see https://github.com/ferro/ferro/issues/9
A vimium that doesn't suck would be more useful than this. :-/
>A vimium that doesn't suck

...is called Pentadactyl :)

I meant for Chrome-based browsers. I already use {pentadactyl, vimperator} as my primary browser. :)
After trying it, the worst part has to be the fact that it lives in an extension. It takes 1-2 seconds to render the command box, which is a huge perceptible difference for any Alfred/Launchy/Quicksilver user (all of which respond in milliseconds). I like the unique concept, though.
This looks cool, but I have a really hard time reading Frutiger at that font size. Don't want to be snarky, just sayin! Looks awesome.
If this appeals to you, I recommend checking out Conkeror:

http://conkeror.org/

It's nice having a browser that was designed from the ground up to be used with only a keyboard.