Should I Build It Should I Build It
07 May 2025
Chrome Extensions Developer Tools

A chrome extension that parses and extracts reviews from websites

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

Your idea for a Chrome extension that parses and extracts reviews from websites falls into a crowded space, categorized as a 'Swamp' due to the presence of numerous mediocre solutions. With 7 similar products already identified, the competition is significant. The engagement, measured by the average number of comments on similar products, is low. Unfortunately, we don't have any explicit use or buy signals from the comments of similar products, which further makes it difficult to assess the market demand, but since it's in the swamp category we can expect those to be very low. Given this landscape, it's crucial to understand why existing solutions haven't resonated with users before investing further.

Recommendations

  1. Start by thoroughly researching why existing review parsing extensions haven't achieved widespread adoption. Identify their shortcomings and user pain points. Dive deep into user reviews of competitor products. This will help you understand what aspects are lacking and where you can innovate.
  2. If you decide to proceed, narrow your focus to a specific niche or user group with distinct needs. Instead of trying to be a general-purpose review parser, consider specializing in a particular type of website (e.g., e-commerce, travel) or a specific user group (e.g., researchers, marketers). For example, focus on extracting reviews for a very specific niche of product (e.g. baby strollers) and you can cross-reference the reviews across different retailer sites to give a consensus view.
  3. Explore opportunities to create tools or integrations for existing review platforms or providers. Rather than directly competing with them, consider how you can enhance their offerings or streamline their workflows. Focus on Firefox or Safari versions of your extension, since one of the similar product discussions requested this version.
  4. Evaluate adjacent problems related to online reviews that might offer more promising avenues for innovation. For example, consider developing tools for sentiment analysis, review summarization, or fake review detection. Since the Amazon Shopping Assistant allows for easy viewing of YouTube reviews, consider adding a feature that enables that for a wider range of products.
  5. Given the challenges and competition in this space, be prepared to pivot or abandon the idea if initial research and testing don't yield positive results. Don't hesitate to save your energy and resources for a more promising opportunity.

Questions

  1. What specific unmet needs or pain points in the review parsing space will your extension address that existing solutions are failing to solve?
  2. How will you differentiate your extension from competitors in terms of features, performance, and user experience to gain a competitive edge?
  3. What is your plan to get users to install your extension and how will you increase their engagement?

Your are here

Your idea for a Chrome extension that parses and extracts reviews from websites falls into a crowded space, categorized as a 'Swamp' due to the presence of numerous mediocre solutions. With 7 similar products already identified, the competition is significant. The engagement, measured by the average number of comments on similar products, is low. Unfortunately, we don't have any explicit use or buy signals from the comments of similar products, which further makes it difficult to assess the market demand, but since it's in the swamp category we can expect those to be very low. Given this landscape, it's crucial to understand why existing solutions haven't resonated with users before investing further.

Recommendations

  1. Start by thoroughly researching why existing review parsing extensions haven't achieved widespread adoption. Identify their shortcomings and user pain points. Dive deep into user reviews of competitor products. This will help you understand what aspects are lacking and where you can innovate.
  2. If you decide to proceed, narrow your focus to a specific niche or user group with distinct needs. Instead of trying to be a general-purpose review parser, consider specializing in a particular type of website (e.g., e-commerce, travel) or a specific user group (e.g., researchers, marketers). For example, focus on extracting reviews for a very specific niche of product (e.g. baby strollers) and you can cross-reference the reviews across different retailer sites to give a consensus view.
  3. Explore opportunities to create tools or integrations for existing review platforms or providers. Rather than directly competing with them, consider how you can enhance their offerings or streamline their workflows. Focus on Firefox or Safari versions of your extension, since one of the similar product discussions requested this version.
  4. Evaluate adjacent problems related to online reviews that might offer more promising avenues for innovation. For example, consider developing tools for sentiment analysis, review summarization, or fake review detection. Since the Amazon Shopping Assistant allows for easy viewing of YouTube reviews, consider adding a feature that enables that for a wider range of products.
  5. Given the challenges and competition in this space, be prepared to pivot or abandon the idea if initial research and testing don't yield positive results. Don't hesitate to save your energy and resources for a more promising opportunity.

Questions

  1. What specific unmet needs or pain points in the review parsing space will your extension address that existing solutions are failing to solve?
  2. How will you differentiate your extension from competitors in terms of features, performance, and user experience to gain a competitive edge?
  3. What is your plan to get users to install your extension and how will you increase their engagement?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 7
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 0
  • Net use signal: 20.0%
    • Positive use signal: 20.0%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 0.0%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

Relevance

ExtReviewBot – Browser Extension Review Tracking and Analytics

05 Nov 2024 Chrome Extensions

Hey HN!As extension developer, I always struggled to keep up with user feedback across different platforms. So, I built ExtReviewBot to solve this problem for myself and thought it might help others too.ExtReviewBot is a simple tool that:- Tracks reviews for your extensions across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge stores- Sends instant notifications for new reviews (through Slack)- Provides weekly or monthly summaries- Analyzes sentiment and identifies trendsI'd love to get your feedback. What features would make it more useful for you? Any suggestions for improvement?Let me know what you think!

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