It's Not You, It's Us: Why We're Breaking Up with Our Chrome Extension

Relationships are hard, especially the one between your startup and its Chrome Extension. Like any budding romance, we started excitedly: The promises were compelling, the possibilities endless.

At CarbonCopies AI, our initial love affair with Chrome Extensions was driven by four big promises:

1. Enhanced Accessibility and Reduced Friction:
   Users wouldn't need to navigate away—our product was right there in the browser, just a click away.
2. Contextual Relevance:
   Being embedded in your browser would allow our CarbonCopies tools to overlay seamlessly within the exact digital experiences our customers were evaluating—perfect for UX assessment.
3. Rapid Experimentation and MVP Testing:
   Chrome Extensions promised to let us test, learn, and iterate fast, with minimal dev investment.
4. Distribution and Visibility:
   An extra channel through Chrome Web Store seemed like a natural distribution advantage.

It all sounded perfect. But, like any romance, the reality didn't quite match the ideal.

Here's why our Chrome Extension romance didn't go as planned—and why we decided it's time to part ways:

1. Enhanced Accessibility turned into... "Wait, you're reading my data?"

We weren't actually reading our users' browser data. But every new potential customer would face the dreaded Chrome pop-up: "CarbonCopies Extension wants permission to read your browsing data."

Talk about first impressions gone wrong. Explaining repeatedly that "it's not what it sounds like!" became a hurdle in our early conversations. User trust matters enormously to startups—and overcoming that initial friction was simply more trouble than it was worth.

2. Contextual Relevance: Yes, but only during tests

To be fair, contextual relevance was genuinely valuable when users ran UX assessments. The Chrome Extension let product teams visualize UX improvements right within the actual user experience.

However, as a standalone product, it struggled to add sufficient value. Chrome Extensions tend to have constrained interfaces—typically a thin sliver of screen real estate on the side panel—not ideal for robust interactions or complex visualizations.

3. Rapid Experimentation wasn't exactly rapid

Chrome Extensions promised quick MVP testing. But limitations like the maximum file size of 2GB, challenging authentication flows (we see you, poorly documented auth frameworks!), and quirky development quirks slowed us down significantly.

Ironically, we ended up spending more time fixing Chrome-specific issues than validating our core hypotheses.

4. Distribution and Visibility: Turns out nobody browses the Chrome Store for solutions

Theoretically, the Chrome Web Store gave us a ready-made distribution channel. Practically? Not quite.

When users face a problem, they don't start their journey at the Chrome Store. They turn to Google, Reddit, GPT, or Perplexity to seek recommendations, and from there might land on the Chrome Extension. Ultimately, Chrome Store distribution wasn't as valuable as we anticipated.

Net-Net: Great Accessory, Poor Core Solution

So, where does that leave us?

Chrome Extensions can be wonderful accessories for established SaaS products, acting as complementary tools within broader ecosystems. Examples abound:

• Grammarly for writing wherever you type.
• Notion Web Clipper for quickly capturing content.
• Apollo.io for effortless prospecting on LinkedIn.

These extensions shine as accessories because they're companions to robust, standalone applications—not standalone validation products themselves.

For CarbonCopies AI, a Chrome Extension alone can't fulfill our vision or user expectations.

That's why we're making the leap and launching a dedicated Web App. A richer, more capable, and friction-free experience awaits—without scary permissions pop-ups, cramped interfaces, or hidden technical potholes.

Like all good breakups, this is about us growing into a better version of ourselves.

It's been real, Chrome Extension. We can still stay friends, but we're ready for something bigger.

Onward and upward,
Team CarbonCopies

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