Meta Random Search
Randomize you default search engine for more diversity
I am happy to see my browser extension "Meta Random Search" reached organically 100 active users on the Chrome Web Store, which is a confirmation that visitors of the website https://meta.softwarejourney.net/ liked it enough to go one step further and installed the browser extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/meta-random-search/lbjojakdjggbdpnnockgkbnbkgenfknj
The changing the default search engine is a bit more difficult on the mobile than on the desktop (for example in Google Chrome Android you can not add a custom search engine, you can only select from a predefined list).
Also browser extensions are (mostly) not allowed on mobile :-(
So, the easiest solution to reach mobile users was to add PWA (Progressive Web Apps) features on my existing website https://meta.softwarejourney.net
Once implemented, a mobile user can "install" my website like an application and add an icon to the home screen. 👍
It's interesting the word "random" often has a negative connotation to users, as if #randomness would only bring (below) average outcome... In my opinion randomness is a crucial part of #serendipity. So, I'm renaming https://random.softwarejourney.net into https://meta.softwarejourney.net
The Chrome browser extension is getting more installs than Firefox extension. I was expecting more Firefox users to be interested and privacy focused.
There is no statistics available for Microsoft Edge browser extension but I don't expect many people visiting the Microsoft Store for Edge
-
1
Assuming a lot of your users are developers, they probably have to use chrome because it is what most of their customers are using.
-
1
I agree Chrome is main focus, both on users and developers side.
I'm a bit sad for Firefox which lost 50 million users in 3 years: https://www.techradar.com/news/firefox-is-great-so-why-has-it-lost-almost-50-million-users
-
I started with a very simple browser extension which adds a custom search engine to the browser and randomly use a different search engine for each search query.
The browser extension was quickly approved by Mozilla Firefox Add-ons store. It took a bit more patience to get it approved on Google Chrome Web Store (and $5 to be allowed to publish an extension on the store).
I created this app to get out of the habit of using exclusively Google Search because honestly the alternatives to Google Search aren't as relevant in many cases, so I wasn't ready to change my default search engine to DuckDuckGo for example.
My solution with this browser extension is to automatically use a different search engine for each search query :-)
Comment