IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Google Has Removed MV2 Extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Including UBO

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Preference for Firefox as a privacy‑focused alternative to Chrome
- “Switch to firefox” – malfist
- “AND try to not use Google, Facebook, Amazon, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Oracle and other similar products made by asshole companies.” – abroszka33
- “Firefox is genuinely quite a good option… they do let you actually turn things off, which I’m very appreciative of.” – tentacleuno

2. Concerns over Chrome’s Manifest v3 changes and their effect on ad‑blocking/uBlock Origin
- “Chrome's multiprocess sandboxing wasn't unambiguously good. It carried a steep cost in overhead.” – wtallis
- “Google is now deciding for a frighteningly large part of the public exactly how much security and privacy they should get.” – wtallis
- “The big loss for me with the mv2 deprecation was uMatrix… uBlock Origin Lite … now has full scriptlet support…”. – taviso

3. Advocacy for low‑tech or pen‑and‑paper note‑taking to reduce digital overload
- “Honestly, at what point do we just throw our kit in the trash and go back to pen & paper?” – Henchman21
- “Yesterday. Do we actually need any of this stuff? Probably not. But it's damn hard to stop enjoying it.” – abroszka33
- “Reintroducing pen and paper to your note‑taking repertoire might not be such a bad idea, anyway -- it's a much more creative medium than most digital, textual forms.” – tentacleuno

4. Calls for antitrust action / breaking up big tech (Alphabet, Amazon, etc.)
- “Alphabet needs to be broken up. Chrome, Search, Android, Youtube need to be separate companies.” – bogzz
- “We had a glimpse of that antitrust future on the horizon with the previous admin. This spooked all the big tech weirdos so much that they put their weight behind the other guy and, well, they won. Antitrust is dead for another generation.” – coldpie
- “A break up of big tech… can only accelerate [innovation]… America is totally fucked if we keep betting it all on these monopolies.” – bogwog

🚀 Project Ideas

InkFlow: Freeform Digital Note‑Taking with Search

Summary

  • A digital note‑taking app that combines the freeform, pen‑and‑paper feel with instant search, OCR, and cross‑device sync.
  • Lets users write/draw anywhere on an infinite canvas while automatically indexing text for retrieval, solving the “no search, hard to organize” pain of paper notes.

Details

| Target Audience | Students, researchers, knowledge workers who love pen‑and‑paper but need searchability | | Core Feature | Infinite canvas with stylus/touch input, built‑in OCR, full‑text search, tagging, and end‑to‑end encrypted sync | | Tech Stack | Flutter (Dart) for UI, TensorFlow Lite for OCR, SQLite + CRDT‑based sync, self‑hosted or cloud storage | | Difficulty | Medium | | Monetization | Hobby |

Notes

  • HN users lamented that pen‑and‑paper notes lack search and are cumbersome to carry (63stack, tentacleuno). InkFlow gives them the best of both worlds.
  • Could spark discussion on note‑taking methodologies and integrate with existing markdown workflows.

uBlock Plus: MV3‑Compliant Ad Blocker with Local Scripting

Summary

  • A Firefox/Chrome extension that bypasses MV3 limitations by running a local trusted script engine to evaluate filter rules and modify network requests in real time.
  • Provides the power of uBlock Origin’s MV2 blocking while staying within Chrome’s MV3 framework, addressing the fear that ad blocking will become ineffective.

Details

| Target Audience | Privacy‑conscious users who rely on uBlock Origin and fear MV3’s impact | | Core Feature | Local WebAssembly filter engine that loads user‑provided rule sets and can block, modify headers, and inject CSS without needing declarativeNetRequest limits | | Tech Stack | TypeScript, WebAssembly (Rust compiled to wasm for rule matching), WebExtension API, IndexedDB for rule storage | | Difficulty | High | | Monetization | Hobby |

Notes

  • Commenters warned that MV3 will kill effective ad blocking (taviso, zamadatix) and that uBO Lite loses flexibility. uBlock Plus restores that power.
  • Could revive debate about MV3 vs MV2 and give power users a way to keep strong ad blocking without sacrificing browser security.

SeekFree: Unlock Custom Search Engines in Safari

Summary

  • A Safari extension that lets users set any search engine (e.g., Qwant, Bing, DuckDuckGo) despite Apple’s whitelist, by intercepting search requests and redirecting them.
  • Restores freedom to choose privacy‑focused search engines without leaving Safari.

Details

| Target Audience | macOS/iOS Safari users who want to avoid Google/Bing but are blocked by Apple’s search engine whitelist | | Core Feature | Redirects Safari’s search bar and smart search field to a user‑defined URL with query‑string injection, works across iOS and macOS | | Tech Stack | Swift (for Safari App Extension), JavaScript content script, optional iCloud‑based sync for preferences | | Difficulty | Low | | Monetization | Hobby |

Notes

  • infecto and abawany complained that Safari doesn’t let them set alternatives like Qwant or Ecosia. SeekFree directly solves that.
  • Low effort, high utility; likely to be welcomed by HN’s privacy‑focused Mac users.

FoxSync: Self‑Hosted Firefox Sync Service

Summary

  • A lightweight, drop‑in replacement for Mozilla’s Firefox Sync server that users can run on a VPS or Raspberry Pi, giving full control over bookmarks, history, tabs, and passwords.
  • Eliminates reliance on Mozilla’s servers while preserving the native Firefox sync experience.

Details

| Target Audience | Firefox power users who want data sovereignty and cross‑device sync without trusting third parties | | Core Feature | Implements the Firefox Sync API (tokens, encryption, storage) with a simple REST interface, Docker‑ready, and includes a web UI for monitoring | | Tech Stack | Node.js (or Go) for API, SQLite for metadata, libsodium for encryption, Dockerfile | | Difficulty | Medium | | Monetization | Hobby |

Notes

  • outofpaper lamented that Firefox lacks proper sync across systems. FoxSync gives them a self‑hosted alternative.
  • HN commenters often self‑host services; this would

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