Google outlines Chrome extension plans

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 2 Dec 2008 at 11:44

Google has provided further details of its plans to add extensions to Chrome, giving users the ability to customise the functionality of their browser.

According to a design document posted by the search giant, it will not be following Mozilla down the path of hosting a wealth of extensions, but rather focusing on those that comply with very specific criteria.

"Chromium can't be everything to all people," says the document. "User-created extensions have been proposed to solve these problems: the addition of features that have specific or limited appeal; users coming from other browsers who are used to certain extensions that they can't live without; bundling partners who would like to add features to Chromium specific to their bundle."

Despite its dependence on advertising, the company says it intends for Chrome to support ad and flash blockers, two of the most popular Firefox add-ons. It also mentions support for download helpers, bookmarking and navigation tools and extensions that offer content enhancements, such as clickable phone numbers in Skype.

Among its other criteria for extensions, Google says they must be "as polished as if they had been developed by the Chromium team" and that "we should not need to disable deployed extensions when we release new versions of Chromium", unlike Firefox.

Google also wants extensions to silently update, be installable in a couple of clicks and be sandboxed processes.