[tschiller]

The timeline of browser extensibility is quite fascinating. There's really not a single place that covers all of it, so I decided to research my own timeline/history:

  - Consumer web browsers (1993-)
  - Plug-ins (1995-2015ish)
  - User Style Sheets (1998-2019)
  - Bookmarklets (1998–)
  - Browser Extensions (1999–)
  - Mozilla XUL (1997–2017)
  - Alternative Browser Distributions (2004–)
  - Userscripts (2005–)
  - Converging on the WebExtensions API (2017–)
  - Manifest V3 (2021–)
  - No/Low-Code Browser Extension Builders (2021–)

Here's a link to the blog post with my research: https://medium.com/brick-by-brick/a-brief-history-of-browser...

Also, if you care about browser extensibility, join the w3 group (it's free) and watch the GitHub repo!

[branneman]

Now find some sources to cite with that timeline, and create a wikipedia article from it!

[TedDoesntTalk]

What is the goal of this group since the current WebExtensions standard is already supported by almost every major web browser? If seems their goal is already complete.

[shash7]

There's still a lot to do, mainly around distribution and publishing areas:

- webextensions specific storage apis to return promises but chrome still needs callbacks

- A few UI differences between chrome's extension popup and firefox's one means you'll need to potentially leave out features for one browser.

- csp policies differs between chrome and firefox(and cors too I think)

- UX differences between browsers means you'll need to write extra code, and maybe a few extra tutorials.

- Difference between how permissions are interpreted on different browsers

- Huge huge difference between publishing on chrome vs on firefox

- Safari requires xcode, and therefore macos to publish

[jchook]

Afaik Chrome does not support the standard, yet Firefox supports Chome’s API. As a result, most extensions seem to use the Chrome API.

Firefox also provides a polyfill to adapt the Chrome API to the WebExtensions standard.

More info here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...

[SilasX]

At the end of the day, though, you can't remap keys in a fully general way in Firefox[1], so the experience has regressed.

[1] Extensions can change it, but they don't take effect until the tab for current page has loaded, which often defeats the purpose.

[sneak]

Malicious extensions, as well as the ability to block the browser vendor’s ads still pose a problem to these groups to be solved.

[rasz]

As always its about control. Its a fight against general computing.

The goal is deprecation of "remote code" execution, where "remote" means remote to Vendor, but local to user, aka anything not shipped and signed by the extension store.

[dimal]

I hadn’t realized that user stylesheet support had ended. I feel like I should bemoan the loss of user control, but in reality, few people used them.

[Someone]

I think Safari on Mac OS has them. If not, what’s https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/advanced-ibrw1075/mac meaning where it says

“Style sheet

To use your own CSS instead of webpage style sheets, click the pop-up menu, then choose Other.”?

[stephenr]

$20 says Google removed the feature from Chrome, so a chunk of developers consider the feature 'dead', because to them "Browsers = Chrome".

[cmeacham98]

They definitely still work in Firefox, but you have to toggle a pref in about:config.

[amelius]

I bet there are browser extensions that fill this gap.

[NegativeLatency]

I currently use a user style sheet on the latest version of safari

[Fnoord]

I suppose you could link to the adoption and decline of methods of running code local (instead of remote) such as JavaScript, Adobe Flash, etc.

But I also think its interesting to note how browsers became suits including a chat and mail client (protocols such as POP3, SMTP, IMAP, NNTP, IRC, FTP, etc) to focusing on WWW only (HTTP). Heck at some point browsers even had LDAP support for things like bookmarks and settings.

[jfrunyon]

Rip FTP https://chromestatus.com/feature/6246151319715840

[Siira]

> User Style Sheets (1998-2019)

I’m still using them.

[63]

Agreed. I just made a new one last week.

[amelius]

Shouldn't Java be somewhere in that list?

[tschiller]

Java falls under plug-ins. The Java plug-in was released in 1998. Flash was released in 1996

[flomo]

Internet Explorer add-ons (if only because they were kinda a scourge)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_Explorer_add-...

[ximm]

Bookmarklets will die once Content Security Policies will get wider adoption, which I really hope will happen soon.

[tschiller]

According to the spec, Bookmarklets should actually be exempt from a site's CSP. The reason is that the user's preferences should take precedence over a site's preferences

There's an open bug in Firefox about this (because it doesn't follow the spec): https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866522

[wwweston]

Bookmarklets are exempt from CSP by spec.

And as far as I can tell, they should be. They're a natural intermediate step between nothing and extensions, and there's not really security problems they have that extensions don't.

If there's a problem here, it's that browsers (some, at least) aren't following the spec.

[RHSeeger]

I sure hope not. I rely on bookmarklets on a regular basis. I use them every day.

[Kiro]

How does CSP affect bookmarklets?

[forgotmypw17]

Do you know of a replacement for the last resort for transforming a web page into something readable for an individual with accessibility needs?

[jamal-kumar]

Anyone else remember stuff that fizzled out like DHTML?

[toyg]

DHTML didn't fizz out, people just stopped using the buzzword - because everybody uses it pretty much all the time.

[detaro]

The only thing that fizzled out about that is the name.