There are many, many thousands of browser extensions and they can do a myriad of things. Usually, it is to help you. For example, I have a browser extension which allows me to copy text in plain text (no formatting). It helps me in some work I do. I have a color picker which I can engage to tell me the color code of a given color on my screen.
I use Camelizer which shows me historic price moves on Amazon items.
Again, there are many, many thousands that can do all sorts of stuff to help you.
Honey was advertised to find you coupons when you bought something off the internet. Mostly it didn’t do that and instead borderline stole money (we will see what the courts say).
I kept seeing ads for Honey a few months ago. I didn’t think it was a scam, but I definitely thought I was the product since it was “free.” I’m not shocked to find it is a scam, but I’m a little surprised by how brazen it is.
A browser extension is a little program that runs in your browser to add functionality. In Firefox, if you click the three horizontal bar “hamburger” menu, one of the options is “Add-ons & themes”. In Chrome, you click the three dots and there’s an option for “Extensions”. I’m sure Edge is similar. Those will take you to recommendations of extensions to do stuff like block ads, turn pages into plain text, allow you to right-click on pages that try to block it, disable Javascript, stop sites like Facebook from spying on you off of Facebook, lock in screen magnification, etc etc. You can select them there and activate them or de-activate them according to your needs.
Much like phone apps, probably 99% of them will feel like “Why does anyone want this?” but you’ll probably also find some stuff that makes you think “Now that’s pretty useful!”
Extensions can be used on most browsers (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.). They are also usually free.
There is a “store” where your browser will let you see and search for available extensions (see a bit below in this post). You download them and they become a part of your browser. When you start your browser the extension(s) you have start with it. Usually completely invisible to the user once they are installed. They might put an icon on the top bar to let you know they are there but not necessarily.
These are little programs that do some task that helps you (usually). Like I said, I have a CopyPlainText extension. If I cut/paste some text on the internet I can use that extension to remove all formatting and make it plain text. That helps me because I do that a lot and pasting in something at font size 30 is not what I want.
Another is a bulk URL opener. I need to open the same two-dozen web pages every day. I could do it manually or use an extension that keeps that list and, at the push of a button, they all open. So much more simple.
Almost all browsers have one of these. Extensions can be a great help.
ETA: If you have ever been using your browser to surf the internet and thought, “This task is kind of a pain in the ass…surely there must be a better way!” Chances are you are not the only person who thought that and someone made a little program to solve that problem for you. Maybe not always but more often that not I find I wasn’t the only person who wanted something to work a little better and someone solved it and gives it away for free as a browser extension.
Some of the most common browser extensions are ad blockers and password programs. So if you use OnePassword or BitWarden password programs, it asks to install the browser extension and it will fill in passwords on websites you visit. Or the ad blocker will stop popup ads.
Browser extensions such as Honey will supposedly offer you coupons applicable on whatever site you’re visiting.
For a moment I wondered why LegalEagle was getting personally involved in this, but then I realized that he’s a YouTuber and probably lost money due to Honey’s shenanigans. The LegalEagle video linked above contains a link to “learn about the lawsuit”. It leads to a page that asks if you are a content creator and if so, asks for your contact info and a description of “how you think Honey might have affected your business”. I would guess that they’re collecting parties for the suit.
I’m not 100% sure but I think he may have done ad reads for Honey at some point. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s taken on something like this, though - I recall him making a video a few years ago about how he was suing the DOJ for stonewalling a FOIA request, and I think he also sued Merrick Garland at some point in 2024.
The way he puts it in the video, pretty much any Youtuber who’s ever posted a referral link is a potential class member, which has got to be at least several tens of thousands of people.
I think anyone who has used a referral link is a class member. Which makes the class considerably larger. Not just people on YouTube.
I get PayPal/Honey saw how they were making huge money off of this but someone had to realize that, sooner or later, someone would figure this out and the lawsuits would come. So why do it? Will they have made more after all the lawsuits are done? People ripped off will get pennies on the dollar and PayPal pockets the rest?
I have no doubt he sees the potential in this to promote his channel. But he can also be doing it because he really was harmed by Honey/PayPal.
In this case he can have it both ways. No doubt he realizes this. Win/win for him.
I’m ok with that. PayPal was awful with this. I am unsure though if they will lose though. It’s all in the small print and the Supreme Court has been fine with clickwrap. PayPal, when asked about this in the past, was upfront and unapologetic. There is a good chance it was all agreed to and everyone who got scammed technically agreed to getting scammed.
Back when that “Established Titles” scam was going around YouTube LegalEagle made a video about it being a scam but also threw some shade at any YouTubers who took the sponsorship because it was “obviously shady”.
If he had at any point done an ad read for Honey I can definitely see him doing this to save face.
That, and he’s a lawyer who makes money doing legal stuff like lawsuits. I don’t recall him, in particular, promoting Honey but he might have, a lot of people did.
I never used Honey because I just don’t shop on line that much and it seemed too good to be true for me.
Devin Stone, i.e. Legal Eagle, is part of Nebula, which is (for those that don’t know) a paywalled platform where YT profiles post originals as well as extended versions of their YT offerings).
Nebula has some of the second tier YouTubers. By 2nd tier, I mean channels with a few million up to maybe 10M subscribers. The first tier channels - e.g. the execrable Mr Beast - don’t need Nebula, but it is an additional revenue source for YT’ers has a day job.
BTW - there are some luddite opinions here. YT is in many ways more powerful than legacy TV networks. It’s not only incels in moms basement. If that’s all YT serves you, then curating a list of subscriptions will enhance your experience immensely.
I’ll confess that LegalEagle always looks a little fake in his videos, almost too slick. If I didn’t know better I’d think he was some kind of AI face.
To me, that is part of his schtick. I find it amusing when compared to his fairly eloquent (if fast-paced) explantions of some of the intracacies of law to us ignorati.
I’ve used Honey for, I dunno, four five years, and it worked fine for me when I didn’t feel like digging through the net for a coupon code. I don’t recall going referral links, just landing on the website where I used it directly. Sucks what they did, but Honey worked well enough and I don’t see myself disabling the extension because of this.