Top all-time · #9899
Matt Frisbie
Personal blog · mattfrisbie.substack.comprogrammingwebbusiness
Matt Frisbie writes !important, a personal blog at mattfrisbie.substack.com about programming, web and business. Since 2023, 8 different Hacker News readers have linked it 10 times, most often “The Ugly Business of Monetizing Browser Extensions (2023)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-10-16, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Matt Frisbie's post cataloguing the monetization offers a free Chrome extension developer receives, and cite it on why tools drop privacy stances once they grow. Comments only cite or link it.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Browser extensions, web development, and JavaScript. Occasional sarcasm.
Most-linked posts?
- The Ugly Business of Monetizing Browser Extensions (2023)5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2023-08-09
- Let's buy some fake reviews for a pointless Chrome extension2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-03-04
What Hacker News says?
Most such tools can no longer afford their stance once adoption passes a threshold. Why that might be is often revealed on techdirt: - https://www.techdirt.com/edition/freespeech/ For other reasons, see also: - https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/the-ugly-business-of-mone... - https://github.com/extesy/hoverzoom/discussions/670
Comment linking /p/the-ugly-business-of-monetizing-browser
on “Jitsi Meet Abandons Anonimity Promise”Submitted The Ugly Business of Monetizing Browser Extensions (2023) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionChatGPT for Google was #1 on HN earlier this year. Check out the GitHub repo now: that person sold the extension. I had a small side project extension, ~25,000 installs & free to use. I got enough inbound interest trying to "help me monetize" that I thought it would be worth cataloguing all the different unsavory avenues: https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/the-ugly-business-of-mone...
Comment linking /p/the-ugly-business-of-monetizing-browser
on “Many temptations of an open-source Chrome extension developer”Submitted Let's buy some fake reviews for a pointless Chrome extension as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Everyone Should Sideload More Browser Extensions as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Let's buy some fake reviews for a pointless Chrome extension as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Laziness Is a Superpower as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Ugly Business of Monetizing Browser Extensions as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Let's build a Chrome extension that steals everything as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Ugly Business of Monetizing Browser Extensions as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
