Glossary

• Active users

  • In Chrome, the active users is the amount of browser instances whose Chrome browser has checked for an extension update on a given day. If 1 user has installed an extension on 2 browsers, then it is counted as 2 instead of 1. This is not the number of downloads. The users may or may not have interacted with the extension during that day. The extension may not even be enabled. This number is updated daily.

  • In Edge, the number is counted in a similar way as Chrome, but Edge updates the number weekly instead of daily.

  • In Firefox, the counting method is similar. Additionally, Firefox also exposes the number of downloads within a given week.

• Extension vs. Add-ons

  • In Chrome, there are three types of items in Chrome Web Store: extensions, themes, and apps.

    • Extensions like Honey, uBlock Origin, Grammarly, etc. can run custom codes that enhances your browsing experience like blocking ads, modifying your web pages, changing your new tab page, etc.

    • Themes will simply change the look-and-feel of Chrome without the ability to run any code, so themes are generally safe to install.

    • Apps are deprecated. They were clickable apps in Chrome that will take you to a full screen web app with some extra permissions that can modify your browser. Now apps are no longer accepted in Chrome Web Store. Only a few of them still linger in Chrome Web Store.

  • In Edge and Firefox, extensions are also known as add-ons, though Firefox is also branding them as extensions. For all practical purposes, extensions and add-ons are the same.

• Important Columns in Raw Data and Advanced Search

  • itemsCategory: can be extension, theme, or application (in case of Chrome, though this type is deprecated)

  • author: the publisher name. May be a free-form string or a URL. This can be almost anything, and not necessarily verified. Different publishers may use the same publisher name, or a claim a name that they may not own. For example, a third-party publisher may claim the name "Google" or "Microsoft" even though they may not be affiliated with Google or Microsoft.

  • obsolete: set to true if the extension has been removed from the store.

  • obsoleteReason: only for Chrome extensions. This can be set to the reason for removal (may be malware or policy violation) if known.

  • description: a short description of the extension, available within the manifest itself.

  • fullSummary: a long summary of the extension, available in the store listing.

  • lastFetchedDate: the date (YYYYMMDD format) at which we last fetched this extension successfully.

  • lastUpdate: the date at which this extension was last updated in the store (may be a version update or simply a store listing update).

  • isUnlisted: for Chrome only, set to true if the extension's visibility is unlisted (you won't be able to find such extensions using Chrome Web Store search).

  • resurrectionDate: this is set if the extension was once removed from the store, and then came back to the store. This will contain the date when the extension last reappeared on the store.

  • previousObsoleteDate: this is set if the extension was once removed from the store, and then came back to the store. This will contain the date when the extension last disappeared from the store.