Think about how many hours we spend on the browser every day! Checking gmail in the morning before starting office work and surfing facebook during the day. In the afternoon, watching a youtube tutorial or amazon shopping, everything is happening inside this browser. We spend half of our digital life inside the browser.
But the problem is that we use the browser with its built-in features. We change some settings in chrome or firefox, maybe sometimes we install a popular extension. But do you customize the entire browser according to your needs? And How to do ?
This is where the real magic lies. Browser extensions are the key to that magic. Extensions are small tools or apps that sit inside the browser and give your experience a completely different feel.
Imagine opening five of your favorite sites with a single click, or having a web page that only shows you what you need, or having dark mode activated when you read an article. Does it sound like fantasy? In fact, all of this is possible because of extensions.
Now the biggest question is, can only developers create these extensions? Absolutely not. Nowadays there are tools and platforms where you can create your own browser extensions without writing any code. That is, you can customize the browser extension according to your work. So now the question may come that why create your own extension?
Let us see why you need to make your own extension.
1. Fulfill your needs: Suppose you are a freelancer. Every morning you have to open these 10 websites chatgpt, gemini, gmail, google drive and payoneer. Now instead of opening them separately every day, if there is a button that opens five tabs at once when clicked, then the task will become much easier. But other extensions may not have this feature, so you create your own custom extension.
2. Increase your work time: Small tasks in the browser waste a lot of our time, such as closing unnecessary tabs, saving PDF, or copying and pasting the same text over and over again. Your extension can complete these tasks automatically.
3. Security and Privacy: Most popular extensions track your data. You might be thinking that you are just using "dark mode" but is it collecting your browsing history? Now if you create an extension, you can be completely sure that your data will be with you.
4. Build your brand: If you are a content creator, teacher, or business owner, you can build your branding extension. Now the question is how to create an extension? Or where to start creating an extension?
Where to start?
When we hear the word "extension creation," the first thing that comes to mind is "coding," but the truth is that these days, extensions can be created without even writing code. All you need is a little curiosity and a small idea.
STEP 1:
Find an idea first: Before you start any work, you need to understand what you really want to create. Maybe you want to open your 10 favorite websites with one click? Remember, creating an extension does not mean creating huge software. You can create a small extension to solve a small problem.
STEP 2:
- Extension tool without code:
- Extensionizr: Easy for basic extension.
- Ply: Ready extension in a few clicks.
- Bubble: If you want to make something bigger.
STEP 3:
Test: After creating the extension, the real fun is testing. How to test it? If you are using the chrome browser, click on "Load Unpacked" in the extension tab. Then select the folder of the extension you created. Is it done? Now your extension is live.
STEP 5:
- Open to everyone: If you think your extension will help others, you can leave it for everyone.
- Chrome Web Store: It takes only $ 5 for uploading here.
- Edge Add-ons: free.
- Firefox Add-ons: free. Here you will need to write a description, provide some screenshots, and mention a privacy policy. Then Google or Mozilla will review it and if everything is OK, your extension will be open to everyone.
STEP 6:
- Proudly say, "I made it!":
- Share with your friends.
- Post on social media.
- Create blogs or YouTube videos. or link to the extension on your website. This way, your little tool can be used by many people.
Answering one of the common questions, ‘Can an extension automate tasks?’
- Yes, it can. Most people find opening the same website or typing passwords over and over again the most annoying thing. So the simple solution is to create an extension to automate these tasks.
‘Should your extension be free or paid?’
- It is better to keep it free at first because it will increase the number of users. Later you can add premium features and earn money.
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