[ohaal]

In the comments so far, there seems to be some confusion on what this is. The Chrome Sidebar API is an API for Chrome extensions, adding a sidebar surface to Chrome.

The proposed API allows Chrome extensions to access and control a sidebar panel - a per-tab split-pane HTML container to the right (to the left in RTL environment) of the main page content with the ability to resize horizontally.[1]

In short, it provides extensions an alternative to using popups or injecting HTML directly into web pages in order to display something to the user.

With it, you could for instance (re-)implement something like the old Side Tabs feature, which was removed from Chrome because the complexity of a tree-style interface in terms of usage is beyond what most users need or want, and in terms of implementation is more than passes the cost/benefit test for building into Chrome natively as an option.[2]

[1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/102hfWTM5cMl-95PyfGcn89YH...

[2]: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=344870#c...

[smurfpandey]

We had a sidebar extension on Chrome called Teamgum[1]. But it was removed from store last month because we were using remote iframes. And when we asked for more explanation nothing from their end. And now I see they are developing there own sidebar.

[1]: http://www.teamgum.com

[bhilburn]

Awesome explanation. Thanks for sharing.

It looks like Mozilla is making a new push with Firefox, as well, to attract devs back: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/big-ch...

If successful, it will be interesting to see how Chrome evolves for developers to compete.

(I was reminded of this because the Firefox sidebar was always wildly popular - I know lots of people that continue to use it specifically for that purpose)