Microsoft is developing tools for its Edge browser to import extensions from Chrome.

Microsoft Edge engineer Jacob Rossi tweeted...

Lots of questions on this: yes we're working on a porting tool to run Chrome extensions in Edge. Not yet finished and not all APIs supported — Jacob Rossi (@jacobrossi) 18 March 2016

Furthermore, Rossi tweeted, extensions would appear in the Microsoft Store for a "carefully selected set of top scenarios and API coverage."

Opening the door to Chrome extensions could be seen as a significant moment for Edge.

Microsoft's consumer-focused browser – remember Internet Explorer is for businesses – is new and therefore suffers a lack of third-party extensions.

It's the chicken-and-egg of success: parlaying newness off against third-party support for the new technology to gain momentum and critical mass.

Google's Chrome, meanwhile, is the kind of market share Microsoft will now eye enviously and hope can bring web and JavaScript developers to Edge.

Microsoft isn't alone in swallowing Chrome: Firefox shop Mozilla last August announced WebExtensions, an API compatible with Chrome. The idea is it's possible for developers to write their extension once and – stop me if you've heard this before, Java people – run any ware. In a browser that is.

Mozilla is ending Firefox's own XUL, XPCOM, and XBL add ons. ®