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# I created a small Google Chrome extension
- URL: https://broddin.be/i-created-a-small-google-chrome-extension/
- Published: 2022-06-28T16:13:16.000Z
- Updated: 2022-06-28T16:13:16.000Z
- Author: Tim Broddin
- Tags: code, extension, plasmo, #wordpress, #Import 2024-02-03 13:15, #broddin, #Migrated-1784487752640, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-19 19:02

Have you ever opened a new tab in Google Chrome and became totally blown away by how cool your new empty tab looked?

Of course not. New tabs are **boring**.

![A bit boring](https://broddinblog.on-forge.com/storage/293/screenshot-2022-06-28-at-163225.png)

A bit boring

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon [Plasmo](https://www.plasmo.com/?ref=broddin.be), a framework for creating browser extensions. They promise to be **battery-packed**, like a Next.js for browser extensions. They promise quite a lot:

- Automatic generation of (V3) manifest files
- First class TypeScript/React support
- Automatic reloading
- Automatically deploying your extension to all stores

Anyone who has ever developed a browser extension knows that **it can be a hassle**. I was very eager to try out Plasmo.

But I was out of ideas. I just **couldn’t think of anything small** I wanted a browser extension to do. While I was staring at an empty tab in Chrome, it suddenly hit me: let’s spice up this boring new tab screen.

When I was younger, I founded a **rock photography collective** called [Wannabes](https://wannabes.be/?ref=broddin.be), and our team of photographers have visited over 4500 concerts these past years. This means we have **numerous high-resolution photos**. How about showing a photo from our archives, every time you open up a new tab?

Plasmo did not disappoint. The total amount of code I wrote is only about [100 lines](https://github.com/TimBroddin/wannabes-extension/blob/main/newtab.tsx?ref=broddin.be) in total (most of it being the GraphQL query that’s sent to our backend). The development process with Plasmo is **super smooth**. It’s as if you’re writing a regular website, you just write your components & Plasmo handles literally everything else.

![](https://broddin.be/content/images/wordpress/2022/06/Screenshot-2022-06-28-at-16.34.52-1.png?resize=1024%2C538&ssl=1)

You can download the Wannabes New Tab extension [here](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wannabes-new-tab-extensio/loceljoklkaiabemaoglnbenmaomiggo?hl=nl&ref=broddin.be). Source-code is available on [GitHub](https://github.com/TimBroddin/wannabes-extension/?ref=broddin.be).