DEV Community: nagachaitanyalokam

Browser Extensions Developer Survey

nagachaitanyalokam — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 10:36:47 +0000

Hey, web developers!

We are excited to learn about your perspective on the browser extension ecosystem, and your journey with developing and publishing an extension.

You can share your experience by taking a 2 min survey,clicking on the link

Microsoft Edge Add-ons: NEW features to improve extension discoverability

nagachaitanyalokam — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:34:03 +0000

Hello Insider Community,

We are constantly working on improving the Microsoft Edge Add-ons user experience.

We are thrilled to announce new improvements to the Microsoft Edge Add-ons website that makes it easier for users to discover new extensions.

Collections & Categories now show the user region’s trending extensions as “Top Edge Add-ons”

User Feedback #1: Categories in Edge Add-ons are useful to find extensions for specific jobs to be done. But these categories are not locale-specific, and the order of curated extensions are generic.

New Feature #1: Users will now be able to see a geo-specific order of listing within each Edge Add-ons category. The ordering within each extension category will now be powered by our AI recommendation engine to display popular and relevant extensions for each locale / country / geo.

For example, here is the how the “Developer Tools” Edge Add-ons category shows up in different locales:

User Feedback #2: Collections on the Edge Add-ons site are helpful to find a curated list of extensions for a specific task, but the order of the extensions displayed in collections is not geo-specific.

New Feature #2: We improved our algorithm to show more relevant extensions to our users for a specific region on an Edge Add-ons collection. Now, users will be able to see the top extensions within a collection, based on their popularity in the respective locale / country / geo.

For example, here is the how the “Have fun with Microsoft Edge” and “Go window shopping” Edge Add-ons collections show up in different locales:

Auto-complete search suggestions on Edge Add-ons website

User Feedback #3: The suggestions appearing under the search box while entering the keywords on Edge Add-ons site does not populate the region’s trending search keywords as suggestions.

New Feature #3: The suggestions under the search box of the Edge Add-ons website while entering the keywords to find an add-on is now automated. It considers the trending search keywords and provides users with instant and complete suggestion results based on the user region.

Below is the auto complete suggestion for a user in India after entering “I” in the search box of store.

For example, here is how the auto-complete suggestion populates trending searches after entering “i” in different locales:

These feature updates will make it simpler for our users to find popular add-ons for their region and get started with enhancing their Edge browser experience further.

Do let us know what you think of these improvements by leaving a comment below. We would love to hear about your experience, suggestions, and feedback.

Cheers!

Microsoft Edge Add-ons: A 2021 Lookbook

nagachaitanyalokam — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 15:14:52 +0000

Happy New Year again, everyone! We hope 2022 is off to a great start for all of you!

Looking back, 2021 has been an eventful year for Microsoft Edge Add-ons. We were able to work on many aspects of the Edge Addons ecosystem, including the extensions catalog, extension user experience, developer publishing workflow and more.

Here is a peek into our 2021 journey:

Starting with our users, one of the key user asks was to get more extensions onto the Microsoft Edge Add-ons website. Between Build 2021 and New Year’s Eve 2022, Edge Add-ons site catalog grew by 2x, in terms of the size of our extension catalog. Thanks to the thousands of developers who helped us achieve this growth and continue to help us cater to our users better!

To give you a glimpse of our current extension catalog, we have curated below, a list of 2021’s top* extensions from the Microsoft Edge Add-ons site.

Top extensions from Enterprise developers:

Top extensions from Individual developers:

(*Based on total download count, excluding extensions from ad blockers, password managers and shopping assistant categories)

Apart from growing our catalog, we also added many developer-centric and user-focused enhancements to the Edge Add-ons ecosystem.

Here’s a quick recap of the product / ecosystem updates we made in 2021:

January:

[DEVELOPERS] Extension certification report link: An extension developer can view and download the extension certification report from their Partner Center dashboard, containing the result of the extension review and relevant details.

February:

[DEVELOPERS] Extension Store listing localization: Developers can choose a subset of languages instead of manually entering each language in the listing details on Partner Center & the ability to use the same marketing assets across all markets/marketplaces.

April:

[DEVELOPERS] Manifest v2 to v3: To reduce fragmentation of the web for all developers, and to create better web compatibility for our customers, we plan to support the Declarative Net Request API and other changes proposed as part of Manifest V3

[DEVELOPERS] Opportunity for developers to get their extension featured on the Microsoft Edge Add-ons home page

May:

[DEVELOPERS] Extension submission: Developers can track their extension submission review status from the Partner Center & view past updates, the status of submissions, and manage extensions on Partner Center.

[USERS] Themes: Launched new & custom themes to the Edge Add-ons site.

June:

[DEVELOPERS] Launch of Growth Campaign to help & support our Extension Developers to build & add to Edge Add-ons ...

[USERS] Launch of 4 week “Install-To-Win” Incentive Program for Extension users, where they had an opportuni...

July:

Listed the 7 highly user rated extensions on Microsoft Edge Add-ons website that enhance browsing ex...

"Install-To-Win" Sweepstake Week-2 Winners Announcement

[USERS] Consumers can see the active user count of an extension on the Edge Add-on store listing page.

[USERS] The updated extension menu on the address bar of Microsoft Edge allows users to hide & pin their extensions

August:

[DEVELOPERS] Launch of new feature to Add & Manage new users from an Organization to simplify the login method on...

[DEVELOPERS] Introduction of REST API to automate publishing & updation Microsoft Edge Add-ons

[DEVELOPERS] Sign into Microsoft Partner Center using GitHub credentials

September:

List of 10 most downloaded Microsoft Edge Add-ons during “Install-To-Win” Sweepstakes
August’s top trending Edge Add-ons

[DEVELOPERS] Extensions Analytics Dashboard: Extension developers can view their extension's usage, adoption, and in-market performance

October:

[DEVELOPERS] Launched a Community with Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors, help them learn the process of building extensions

[DEVELOPERS] Featured a curated list of extensions developed by student developers

December:

[DEVELOPERS] Roadmap & Released Features documentation were launched to showcase the upcoming and live feature updates on Microsoft Edge Add-ons ecosystem.

[USERS] Each extension category is now powered by our AI recommendation engine to display popular and relevant extensions for each locale / country / geo-location.
Your feedback & testimonials are our motivation, as we continue to evolve our Edge Add-ons ecosystem in 2022 and beyond.

THANK YOU once again, for the fantastic year! We are grateful to each of you for the continuous feedback & contribution to the Edge extension ecosystem.

You can keep in touch with us at #EdgeExtensions here. If you have any questions or feedback on Microsoft Edge Add-ons, please share them here.

View 2021’s recap for Microsoft Edge for developers here.

We look forward to yet another exciting journey in 2022.

Cheers!

Track your add-on's performance: extension analytics now available on Partner Center

nagachaitanyalokam — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 12:49:08 +0000

Extension developers can now track the in-market performance of their extension on the Partner Center. Analytics related to extensions is now publicly available, which has been a consistent top ask by our partners.

For each extension, one can track the extension’s performance under the ‘Analytics’ tab on the extension’s page. There are three types of data fields available for an extension, each with a set of various other filters such as distribution against region, OS, and language. The data fields available are: Weekly users, Daily installs, and Daily impressions.

If you are an extension developer, you can now track your extension’s performance data and work on improving their extension's reach to the users. If you would like to register as an Edge extension developer, you can use the guidance mentioned here.

What else would you like to see and monitor about your extensions? Do share your feedback in the comments!

Trending extensions on Microsoft Edge Add-ons

nagachaitanyalokam — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 06:23:24 +0000

Microsoft Edge is rapidly growing as a preferred browser, thanks to its lower resource consumption, stronger security and innovative features.

In addition to organizing your research with collections, working efficiently with vertical tabs, taking back control with tracking prevention, you can also personalize your Microsoft Edge browser by downloading add-ons or extensions. Add-ons can enhance your browser experience and boost your productivity. For example, you can personalize your browser with themes, organize your work with performance tools, earn cashback on your preferred shopping sites and do much more with add-ons.

We at the Microsoft Edge Addons team constantly monitor all addons in our catalog, so that we can ensure there is a good mix of addons for various user needs, and our catalog does not have malicious addons.

When reviewing the usage trends of addons, we found that a few addons were highly popular with our users, in the last one month. Here are those trending add-ons:

1. Dynatrace Real User Monitoring:

Dynatrace provides software intelligence to simplify cloud complexity and accelerate digital transformation.

This add-on from Dynatrace can help you gain user experience insights into the performance of your SaaS applications. You can get comprehensive information directly from the browser about your users’ interaction with SaaS applications and ensure availability of all aspects of your business-critical SaaS solutions.

2. Flash Player 2021:

This add-on by ModernKit.one uses ruffle emulator, remove "Adobe Flash Player is blocked" message and allow you to play Flash in any website. The emulator has limited support for ActionScript 3 and may not work with all Flash content.

3. HttpWatch:

This add-on is designed to work with the HttpWatch software on Windows. Currently the tool is Windows only and requires a separate download from HttpWatch to complete the installation once the Add-on is installed.

HttpWatch supports multi-page debugging by grouping requests by page and automatic recording and logging of network traffic in each Edge tab without additional user intervention. It displays warnings about well know performance and security issues. The Find and Filter functions make it easier to locate requests or content.

You can directly email HWL or HAR files from within the tool and the tool masks out passwords in POST form data so that they are not recorded in HWL or HAR files

You can add comments to requests to help subsequent analysis of log files and the tool supports built-in summaries of page level statistics. e.g. bytes downloaded, network round trips, etc.

4. ImageAssistant Batch Image Downloader:

ImageAssistant Add-on by Pullwyood is an image extractor for sniffing, analyzing and downloading images from web page, it allows you to easily extract images loaded by flash or ajax.

5. Microsoft Outlook:

Microsoft Outlook browser add-on allows you to access your Outlook work account or your Outlook.com or Hotmail account without switching to another tab or app.

This add-on's features help you manage contacts, access work or personal accounts, manage emails and get new email notifications. You can create events, view upcoming ones and join online meetings. This also helps you create, track and manage tasks.

6. Video downloader - CocoCut:

Video Downloader add-on help you download video or audio of any formats. You need not to register to use this add-on and it’s free to use.

Features include preview the video, check video size, format, and choose the quality before downloading them.

This Add-on is a HLS streaming downloader. It can detect M3U8 files and download the TS files from them. All HLS streaming will be downloaded and merged into MP4.

You can download the Live broadcasts and videos that are difficult to download by recording them.

We'd love to hear your experience and feedback using the above extensions. Please comment and let us know what other extensions would you like us to feature.

Thank you!

7 popular extensions from Microsoft Edge Addons

nagachaitanyalokam — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 13:38:19 +0000

Hello,

Microsoft Edge is rapidly growing as a preferred browser, thanks to its low resource consumption,strong security and innovative features. With Microsoft Edge Add-ons, users can personalize and do more with their browser.

In addition to organizing your research with collections, working efficiently with vertical tabs, and taking back control with tracking prevention, you can also personalize your Microsoft Edge browser by downloading add-ons or extensions. Add-ons can enhance your browser experience and boost your productivity. For example, you can personalize your browser with themes, organize your work with performance tools and much more.

To help you get started, here is a list of 7 highly user rated extensions* on Microsoft Edge Add-ons website that can enhance your browsing experience:

1. Grammar and Spell Checker-LanguageTool:

This add-on will check your texts for spelling and grammar problems by sending it to LanguageTool.org over an encrypted connection.

LanguageTool is compatible with almost all text, regardless of source, including social networks such as Twitter or LinkedIn and online e-mail services, such as Gmail. This grammar and spelling correction works across all variations of common language.

LanguageTool also features a personal dictionary for exceptions or words that you might commonly use but that are not found in a conventional dictionary. LanguageTool will recognize these words in future grammar checking and proofreading. Furthermore, it supports more than 25 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Polish, and Russian. No account is needed to use this add-on.

2. QR Code Generator:

This simple add-on by Awesome Extensions is a super handy QR Code Generator that converts your current page into QR Code with one click and generates QR Codes from free text, URLs. Features include scan, analyze, decode, and read QR codes.

It also offers the option to download the QR code as an image and you can use this add-on offline too.

3. Tampermonkey

Tampermonkey is the most popular Free User Script manager, with over 10 million weekly users.

This add-on manages User Script, which can change the appearance and function of the website completely and make sure they’re operating on the right site.

It also provides features like a clear overview over the running scripts, a built-in editor, ZIP-based import and export, automatic update checks, and cloud storage-based synchronization.

4. Enhancer for YouTube:

This add-on by Maxime RF allows you to manage ads, control the playback speed and the volume level with the mouse wheel, automate repetitive tasks such as selecting the appropriate playback quality, and configure dozens of keyboard shortcuts to control on YouTube.

5. Infinity New Tab (Pro):

Infinity New Tab Pro by Starlab Technology allows you to customize your New Tab page. This add-on changes your new tab experiences by offering options to add all your favorite sites. Additionally, you could add and check your To-Do list, notes and bookmarks.

6. Microsoft Editor: Spelling & Grammar Checker:

Microsoft Editor: Spelling & Grammar Checker proofreads the content written by the user, for correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

This add-on provides grammar, spelling, and style suggestions across multiple websites. The editor checks spellings in more than 80 languages and provides grammar checking and writing improvements in 20+ languages. It also provides Editor’s assistance in the Office apps. Just open Word or Outlook on the web and get suggestions to improve one’s documents and e-mail.

7. Dark Reader:

Dark Reader Add-on by alexanderby, William Zijl enables night mode and creates dark themes for websites.

It automatically inverts bright colors, making them high in contrast and removing the white light brightness. You can easily adjust brightness, contrast, sepia filter, dark mode, font settings and ignore-list. Dark Reader neither shows ads nor sends user data anywhere.

I'd love to hear your experience and feedback using the above extensions. Please comment and let us know what other extensions would you like us to feature.

Thank you!

Ask me Anything on Microsoft Edge Add-ons

nagachaitanyalokam — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 06:39:55 +0000

I'm Chaitanya from Edge Add-ons Team.

I'm here to connect with web developers who are into or trying to build extensions specifically for Microsoft Edge Browser and I'd like to hear your feedback, ideas & suggestions that I can share & discuss with Microsoft Edge Add-ons Team.

If you're facing any trouble with publishing extension, please reach out to me on twitter at: https://twitter.com/chaitanyalokam or reply to this post. So that, I could guide you through the process.