The recent Google Chrome release has led to a healthy discussion of what it means to browser add-ons, as many publishers seek to create features which extend the browser.

A bit more light was shed into Google’s plans to support Browser Add-Ons with Chrome last Friday.  There is also an article from InformationWeek (http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210602700) that cites Google engineer, Ojan Vafai, as recently participating in a panel discussion on the future of Web browsers at Web 2.0 Expo in New York.

I am a strong advocate of browser add-ons.  Internet Explorer and Firefox have varying support of browser add-ons, and now Google has acknowledged its plans to support browser add-ons.  The implementation of your add-on will vary based on the browser being extended, so you need to be considerate of the user penetration for your target audience and the browser add-on which you are creating.  Lehman Brothers came out with a predication that Google Chrome could gain 15% to 20% market share in two years.

Add-ons have been created for so many different uses that it would be difficult to find a user which could not benefit from their existence.  Many of the technical users I am in contact with quickly gravitated to giving Chrome a try.  These users were impressed with the speed of rendering pages and improved tab features offered with Chrome.  I spoke with a few non-technical users and they were less impressed it.

However, one thing was common between both technical and non-technical users.  They both complained that Chrome’s lack of their favorite add-ons was what they missed most about Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Hopefully, Google seems to understand the importance of add-ons.  Hopefully, they’ll get these released before they give up on Chrome’s slow adoption rate, as I think they are crucial to the success of the product.

Ryan Weber, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Co-Founder, W3i Holdings, LLC
Ryan is an Internet marketing pioneer with over eight, profitable years evolving W3i (owner of Freeze.com) in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.