How to build and publish a Chrome Extension in 10 minutes — Browser Extension Explained

Do you also feel that you are having a lot of ideas but anyhow you’re unable to finish any of your project implementations because either they are too time consumping or heavy for a beginner?

If so, this is the perfect article for you. You can follow along in publishing your own browser extension in 10 minutes and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.

So, let’s get started with some basics.

What is an extension?

Extensions are one of those many interesting ways to facilitate and enhance your browser experiences by customizing its functionalities. More technically, extensions are small software programs built on web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that enable users to tailor browser functionality and behavior to individual needs or preferences.

What are we going to build?

Do you also find it difficult to manage multiple profiles as you need to open each of them independently?

In this article, we are going to build a profile launcher to manage and launch all your profiles through a single click.

Screenshot of the customized Profile Launcher Chrome Extension

You can fork my Github repo and customize the same at https://github.com/AnjaliSharma1234/SocialMediaProfileLauncher

Note: This project is an extended version of the Traversy Media tutorial on Google Chrome Extensions.

Getting Started

Create a folder having the following files:

• icon.png(19x19 pixels) for the icon displayed at the extension bar
• icon_128.png (128x128 pixels) for the icon displayed at the chrome store beside your extension name
• Add a logo image(50x50 pixels) under a new folder named ‘images’ for the logo displayed at your extension
• manifest.json — this file is a mandate for chrome extensions including the name, manifest version ( version 2 is applicable for later compatibilities), browser actions…