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The Big Picture and How to Get Started

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Building Google Chrome Extensions 101

What is a browser extension?

Ways to add niche functionality to a browser that people want.

What do you build extensions with?

HTL, CSS and JavaScript

Lots of things you’ll get for free in extensions …

• Local storage (key value pairs)
• Storing preferences and settings
• Geolocation api (lets browser tell you where the device is running)
• WebGL (standard for doing 3D in the browser)
• Audio and video without plug-ins (natively for a couple of codecs)
• Notifications (e.g., desktop notifications coming out of the toolbar)
• Web Sockets (creates a persistent long live connection where the browser can keep connected to a server, to get IM, mail, etc quickly to the browser)
• Discover extensions here: chrome.google.com/extensions; extensions can be hosted there unless you code uses restricted api’s, in those cases, you need to sign something that indemnifies google, etc.
• Can also use flash, and run native code (from the old netscape days)
• NativeClient is another project, runs native code in the context of a sandbox, its coming soon
• Easy to install, click and installs immediately without restarting the browser
• Easy to update, every couple of hours, browsers go and check url, if updates exists, will get it and will update on the fly … all users would update within a day or so, no review process

How do I write an extension?

• Use technology you already know … just like writing a website
• Just focusing on chrome itself (not cross browser)
• Simple API’s: eg, bookmarks, history i18n, processes, tabs / windows, etc.
• Start with manifestation with a.json file
• Develop right in Google Chrome text editor
• chrome://extensions/ (from tools menu on mac)

• Not wild about toolbars in Chrome (design philosophy)
• Instead of toolbars, for extensions, we added “Browser Action” …
• Browser Action icon in upper right (a few things you can do with it)
• Its dynamic, can use JavaScript with it on the fly
• Can change it to another image within extension folder
• Or, in html, using the canvas element … demo of using canvas to spin the icon
• Can display new mail count, for example, like 4 characters worth
• Things you can do to get users attention and give them info to follow up on
• Page Actions – instead of being in the URL box, its next to it
• Browser actions are for any page … but Page Actions is for something contextual to the page in question … might only show up if it detects there is some flash on page (if the extension does things for flash)
• Pop up from URL box
• 3 main views: browser, page and pop ups
• One more view … is the webpage itself
• Grease Monkey built in … we call it “Content Script”
• A javaScript that gets injected and changes the html that you are viewing
• Lessons learned by Aaron when he did GreaseMonkey (now works for google)
• Isolated words … didn’t want your content script to be compromised by a bad website …. so the idea behind Isolated words … its JavaScript … can’t see global variables or functions within the page … it turns out that you can do a lot by just havig access to the DOM … you don’t have to interact with the script of the page … there is workarounds … something about working within the context of the page’s script ….. (Security feature)
• Limited access to chrome.*API
• Can talk to other extensions, to act on your behave …
• Introducing the background page …
• Runs behind the browser, doesn’t show, has a dom and a content script, etc.
• A place to run persistent script … this is the place you’d do the xhr’s to pull new mail, registering new listener programs, etc…
• API’s for content scripts to communicate with your background scripts …
• The brains of your extensions
• The popup is a page as well. It and the script talks t the background page … the logic lives in the background page
• Background and popups is your code and you have full access to it
• The content script has limited access to chrome api’s
• Message passing
• code.google.com/chrome/extensions/ for documentation on this stuff …

A simple twitter trend fetcher

• Changes page, adds a div, inserts trends on twitter
• Adds blue div on top of page, showing twitter trending topics, added by extensions
• Need to choose url’s that it will be inserted into

….

• Uses HTML5 for things…
• Option pages
• Override pages … can over ride tabs, or book marker functionality, or, etc. You can override those things ….
• Themes …
• Can manipulate windows api … (create them, move them around, close them, etc…)
• Asynchronous … don’t want to lock up the whole browser …
• Bookmarks sampe code … tree like api … takes bookmarks and puts into a page
• Take screenshots api … takes one and displays it in the page ….
• A few more experimental ones … use custom codes .. processes, infobar, cookies, context menus, clipboard … looking for feedback … TRY OUT THESE THINSS and give feedback

Q: How use GeoLocation?

A: Right now you have to specify them in in your geo array.

Q: From the snapshot api, can you create a thumbnail?

A: You get a URL with the image, and then you can load it into canvas to do what you need to create it as a thumbnail.

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Google I/O Bootcamp Notes

#iobootcamp on twitter

05/18/10

Social 101: Buzz

The Conversational Web

• Previously there was more consumers of content than creators
• We believe you should have interactions across the web regardless of where its posted or where you’ve entered the web

Google Buzz

• Baked into gmail, where you are spending a lot of time already
• Keep track of whats going on and not losing it all
• Post to Buzz widget, can put on your own site
• Buzz andorid app, and html5 app

Relevant Technologies

• Enough to get a frame of reference for later in the sessions
• Atom (and friends) … xml format for syndicating web content … great for blogs … doesn’t go much further for that … so extensions were added
• Like an image inclosure …
• Atom + MediaRSS … eg adding height and width of image to be displayed correctly
• Atom + GeoRSS … Location is becoming more important, most devices have data … to add geolocation data to Atom is GeoRSS … point and feature name …
• Atom + GeoRSS + Portable Contacts … common format for importing address book … uses “poco”
• Atom + Threading … To create real conversations about this, not just posts … this specifies this is a reply to this post … Here is the post and point to comments … OR …. I am a comment in reply to something else … it can be a video in reply to another video (e.g., youtube, etc).

Activity Streams

• What are the right things to add to Atom to capture whats going on in applications today (streams)
• Its not so much about the content, its the actions on the content that is important
• What do these feeds have in common? (showed actoin lists, like uploaded videos, updates, uploads by a person, favorites of video’s uploaded by person, etc)
• Not many things in common
• The conversational web is not just about the content, its sharing the video … its not just sharing but also letting people know that you “favorited” the content, etc… doesn’t really fit well in the Atom model
• The examples are two same action on two different sites, the other two are two different actions on the same site
• How do we get away from these dumb feeds, add some more meta data, to do interesting things
• Actor + Verb + Object (start simple)
• Ted committed revision 42
• Cami favorites a video
• Ted friended Cami
• Atom + Activity streams (showing how to do this)
• What does adding this additional meta data buy us?
• We are still early in it, havn’t seen a lot of applicatoins doing interesting things on this
• But you can image, like an app that wants to Pivot on these things (e.g., one object tyep is “reviews”)
• Show me all of my “Reviews” regardless of where I created the reviews.
• Or show me all my “Favorites” regardless of where I favored them.

Salmon

• I have my blog with comments and Likes
• I want my blog to get as big an audience as I want, so I syndicate to Buzz, FriendFeed, etc.
• Each of them have their own comments and likes
• We are fracturing things
• You want to engage people where they are and comment there, but it would be nice to have that content to come back to your initial place of post
• Salmon does that, allows comments and likes to swim upstream
• When someone leaves a comment, it will notify my initial site
• It can go for any object that is taken on any object
• This works cross sites, like mentioning an individual with an @ sign, (he mentioned clickset users, status.net and they use salmon and have cross mentioning) … Buzz will be supporting this hopefully in the not so distant future
• Check out Bridging the Islands 3-4pm room 9 hosted by creator of Salmon (TASK)

PubSubHubbub

• You’ll hear a lot about this this week
• It hits the core of a lot of what Google is doing, beyound google
• Its part of making the web faster
• Its enabling the realtime updates of things like appfeeds
• Your rss reader keeps checking with your blog for updates, it keeps checking (e.g., once an hour maybe)
• As a site owner, I’d love for them to stop hammering me … one or two users is not a big deal … but many “the thundering heard” will tumble your site on godaddy …
• The idea solution is a different model
• Replaces your blog with a HUB
• Your blog posts to the Hub
• The Hub pushes it out to the subscribers
• Ream app Wed 4:15 pm -5:15pm same room as SALMON

Oauth

• Password anti-pattern (e.g., entering in your twitter u and p, or email u and p to set up an account and import your contacts) … gives away the keys to your kingdom …..
• Your valet key for the web
• Valet Key (limits speed to 20 mph, limit total distance to 20 miles, reistrict access to the trunk and glove box)
• Oauth Token (limited to particular app, what data applicatoin can access, how long the data can be accessed, revokable)
• “Find your friends the right way…”
• From twitter takes you to Google, it tells you what the app wants and will do with it
• e.g., asking for one time access
• Then goes to flickr and they match your contacts with people on flickr

Big buzz announcements tomorrow you may want to go to that session …

On Thurs there is a building on buzz session ….

Q: why not use (couldn’t hear, xmtp)

A: We don’t believe in having data in silos. We wanted to use existing standards. There was a project called Diso that was all about distributed social network of sorts. The most distributed is everyone is their own node. The other extreme is having one huge network. We were building a lot on wordpress. With that in mind specifically, we choose (couldn’t hear) instead of (couldn’t hear xtmp). Another issues is OneSocialWeb. XMTP is what they are building on. Similar to what DISO is trying to do.

Q: Who are the early adopters?

A: ActivityStreams (Myspace and facebook have done some work with it; Microsoft life is using ActivityStreams) … they are not all 100% compatible with each other. Slight different implementations. 6Apart CEO is the primary editor of the spec. Facebook is involved. MSFT is as well. Lots of collaboration there.

Q: Can PubSubHubbub support authenticated feeds?

A: Not yet, its at the top of our TODO list. Oauth will be a prime way to deal with authenticated feeds. It will probably be address with PubSubHubbub. Today there is no good example of what that will look like. If you have a good idea, please join the community and add your thoughts on how that should work. (Said the issues is something about being able to trust the source or something …).

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Tomorrow is Googl the I/O. Today I am attending its Boot Camp. This post marks the first time I am using a mobile apparently to post to WordPress. I will most Likely use my MacBook Pro for more posts, bu I could not resist starting off with the new a Droid phone Google gifted to me!

Update: Ok, I’m now editing from my MacBook pro. I love my Android but still am not thrilled with the recklessness of the touch keyboard. I’ve accidentally erased and exited accidentally without saving twice at a conference.

That said, I think its only time I get better at it, and they figure out ways to prevent that from happening. Seems like some intelligence just waiting to be baked in.

I’ll be posting more of my notes fromt he event.

Walter…

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Jenn Kho shared her front row access to the Google CampfireOne event last week allowing SweatInvestor to be one of the first sites to report live on Google’s announcement of the GoogleApp Marketplace.  She also wrote an article for AOL’s Dailyfinance entitled: Google Opens Market for Enterprise Apps.

In 2010 SweatInvestor plans to slowly build its presence at such events and to establish a few formats for SweatInvestors to have lively and informed dialog as it relates to their SweatInvestor expertise, credibility and network.

The current thinking is to make these types of posts sort of like merging the Huffington Post with the Techcrunch format/focus for SweatInvestors to join in on the conversation.  We might even throw in a little Edge.org and Charlie Rose formats/styles while we are at it. There will probably be a few micro formats as well as longer formats that might include video, podcasts, etc. Yup, its still early. Lots of ideas being considered and mashed up.

For me, one of my SweatInvestor expertise is in setting up Inside Sales organizations for startups.  This includes formulating how a startup can create successful cold calling campaigns and cultures. As I watched the live stream from Hawaii, I concluded that the GoogleApp Marketplace is definitely worth exploring for startups, especially given GoogleApps Reseller program.

From a sales perspective, leveraging Google’s core offerings, brand name and market momentum while extending it with your startup’s secret sauce via the new API’s, is potentially the perfect inside sales platform for Customer Development. I plan to elaborate on this as I dig into the details for my own startup currently in incubation stages, called AppFeeds. In the meantime, please use the comment box below to ask any questions you might want covered or if you wish to give your take on the announcement,  inside sales for Startups or potential formats for the SweatInvestor blog reporting from innovative and/or exclusive live events.

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I’m at the Google Campfire One event at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and the company’s just launched a new marketplace for business app called, simply, Google Apps Marketplace.

The idea is that businesses that use Google Apps will get access to far more apps that are then integrated into the same Google Apps interface — and that can work together.

Meanwhile, developers can sell their apps to the more than 2 million businesses — and 25 million users — that already use Google Apps, integrate those apps into the Google Apps control bar and navigation bar and access data from other apps (in order to, say, add events to Google Calendar or tap into users’ contact lists) with users’ permission.

All that doesn’t come free, of course. Developers pay a one-time fee of $100 and a 20 percent revenue share.  But it’s not likely Google will have trouble attracting developers at this price. Google’s already signed on 50 partners for its marketplace.

You can watch the event here: http://www.youtube.com/googledevelopers.

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(Note: SweatInvestors are welcomed to make posts from interesting events, especially if the events are “invite only”. Both to share their access as well as to share their unique perspective on the event.)

Live Notes

I’m sitting at a Google launch event with no idea of what will be launched…(for full live blogging notes, go to my personal blog at www.WalterRoth.com.)

A Few High Lights

10:13: Marissa Mayer jumps onto the stage… She outlined 4 major focuses of Google…

10:18: Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering appears on stage… Trends:

1. Computing: Moore’s Law
2. Connectivity: More connections from More Devices
3. The cloud: access to huge resources
4. Mobile devices: video, speakers, gps, camera, etc.

By themselves, these sensors on this android phone are not so special. But within context to the cloud, its much more. They becomes eyes and ears.

Location…wants to make an integral part of all products. In Japan, everyone always hangs on to their mobile devices, always within 1 meter. Same here.

Making “Location” a first class object. (I’ve worked at a Location based company before, I’ve seen this coming, and its huge.  Looking forward to seeing how this rolls out and how it relates to all the GIS/LOCATION/ETC companies that are starting to be introduced to the market. Its just the beginning.)

GoogleGoggles - lets you use a picture as the query. Gives eyes to the internet…

Why is this product in GoogleLabs?  Because we are just in the beginning. Still lots of room to improve…. We are at the beginning of the beginning… 10:43

Amit Gundotra arrives on screen to make the big announcement in search, but first, a little history… The history of information flow:

• Kids asking grandpa, “Should I eat those beans?” “no, they are poisonous”…
• Then the printing press…knowledge spread around the world a lot quicker…
• Servers: billions of documents available to users via search engines…(crawled the info every months, indexed it and then published monthly…then faster, now crawls every few minutes…in today’s world, that is not fast enough…the world updates info every second, twitter, blogs, etc. Info is being created at a pace that we’ve never seen before. Seconds matter).

Announcement: Google Real Time Search Google relevance technology meets the real-time web. Relevance, Relevance, Relevance.

11:03 - Talks about the huge amount of work that goes into making this Had to develop dozens of real time technologies to make search real time…

Query hotness, probability of relevance, author quality, tweet quality, language model, topicality, Query volume fluctuation, etc…

We at Google will not be satisfied when the speed of light is the only barrier between you and your information.

11:07 - Back to Marissa…. Facebook will be providing a live feed from public pages, and will be included in real time search. Same for MySpace.  Twitter is already in there.

Marissa Concludes: last year we laid out our vision of search (the 4 modes). Now we talk about adding eyes and ears in real time. We did a lot in just one short year.

Q: Can you disclose the financial details of these partnershps? Or at least if there are details?

A: we can’t disclose the financial details.

Funny back and forth, as expected, no comment. Interesting implications either way, great question…after the event as the guy from Myspace, picture right, was leaving, as if rock star, people paused asking Marissa questions on the side of the stage, and everyone, including Marissa, directed their attention and questions to him:  can YOU comment on any financial components to the google/myspace deal?  No comment, of course. But could have been straight from a movie screen play.

My Wrap-Up Comments

Today was a great glimpse of what its like to Live Blog with the fishes (i.e., big media).  We’ll see where 2010 will take me and how many “back stage” access events I will find my way into. I look forward to any pointers from readers who are knowledgeable of the press circuit. Google no doubt is an amazing company with a lot of smart folks.  Their focus on search is incredibly smart, especially because it clearly has become the most important component to any application.  Or rather, in my opinion, is 80% or more of an application if done right. Answering the question of whats important to a user right now, right where they are (i.e., here), continues to become more more valuable as the number of object types, contributing devices and real time updates grows and is indexed by Google…done right, navigation controls are less important, and the user is simply provided with a search results page (maybe with special presentation or refinement controls).

On a personal note… One of my goals for 2010 is to set the foundation of getting press passes to unique events to meet and interview innovative people.  So, I’m giving Live Blogging its first go. I’m wiredless up and ready to update live. If there is anyone out there that is knowledgeable about obtaining press passes, or has advice on how to make live blogging, please comment below.

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