Hello. I am Paul Kinlan.

I lead the Chrome and the Open Web Developer Relations team at Google. Exploring the intersection of modern web design and future-facing technologies.

AI and Web Development

I've been thinking alot about how AI impacts the web

Stay in the loop.

I'm trialing a newsletter. Join for monthly insights into web dev, Chrome, and the open web.

alternate_email

Get in touch

Open to chat about Chrome or Web development.

Book a consultation
rss_feed mail
3 min read

Building a simple PubSub system in JavaScript

In this post, I share a simple client-side JavaScript PubSub system I built. Motivated by the Not-Invented-Here syndrome and the desire for independent UI components, I created a lightweight event manager called EventManager. It allows components to communicate without direct dependencies by publishing and subscribing to named events. While similar to tools like Redux, this approach avoids separate state management, leveraging the browser's existing state. The code is available on GitHub.
READ ARTICLE arrow_forward
3 min read

Barcode detection using Shape Detection API

I'm excited to share that barcode detection is now available in Chrome Canary via the Shape Detection API! This feature, along with QR code detection, offers a standardized way to access device hardware and bridge the physical and digital worlds. It's especially useful for mobile, eliminating the need for special apps just to scan barcodes. The API is simple: use BarcodeDetector.detect() with an image input to get a promise resolving to a list of barcodes. I've already integrated this into my QR Code Scanner App, and the ability to use it in worker threads is a huge bonus. It's a very promising addition to the web platform and I'm looking forward to seeing what people build with it!
READ ARTICLE arrow_forward
2 min read

Ideas for web apps with FFMPEG and ffmpeg.js

I've created a Progressive Web App using FFMPEG.js that applies device frames to Android screen recordings. I've also streamlined the ffmpeg.js build process. This opens up exciting possibilities for building powerful web apps for audio and video manipulation. Many existing web-based video tools are outdated and ad-heavy. I'm interested in creating smaller, focused PWAs, each performing a specific task efficiently. I'm planning to build several apps based on this, such as video trimming, format conversion, watermarking, resizing, and splicing. The codebase from my Device Frames project provides a good starting point. I invite others to collaborate on this effort.
READ ARTICLE arrow_forward
1 min read

Building ffmpeg.js for Ubuntu

Building ffmpeg.js, a tool I used in my project Device Frame, can be tricky if you need custom filters and encoders. This post details the steps I took to successfully build it on Ubuntu, including installing dependencies, cloning the repo, setting up Emscripten, and running the build. I also included solutions to some common errors encountered during the process.
READ ARTICLE arrow_forward
9 min read

Designing a Web Push Service

This post details the creation of a generic web-push webhook endpoint. Motivated by the desire for a streamlined notification system for various web services, I built a system that allows me to receive push notifications without needing each service to individually support web push. The system consists of a front-end client, a service worker, a front-end server, a subscription service, and a send service. The front-end client manages subscriptions and provides a unique URL endpoint. The service worker displays notifications. The front-end server handles subscription data and message routing. The subscription service persists subscription information. The send service encrypts and delivers messages to the push service. While I anticipate needing to retire this as more services natively support web push, I hope this example serves as inspiration for others looking to implement similar functionality.
READ ARTICLE arrow_forward
4 min read

Material colour pallette

This blog post showcases a Material Design color palette, converted from an Adobe Color (.aco) file using the Color Palette Toolkit. It's primarily for personal reference and includes a visual representation of each color along with its hex code. The palette covers a wide spectrum of colors, from vibrant reds and pinks to various shades of purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, gray, black, and white.
READ ARTICLE arrow_forward
3 min read

Service Worker Routing

In this post, I discuss a new routing framework I've added to my service worker. It's based on my older LeviRoutes project and allows me to handle different URL patterns separately. This is much cleaner than a complex onfetch handler, and lets me easily manage things like requests to analytics services and my caching strategy. While sw-toolbox is a great alternative, I enjoyed the flexibility and learning experience of building my own. I encourage you to check out the code and consider routing in your own service workers.
READ ARTICLE arrow_forward