Build Your First Extension for the Google Chrome Browser in Seven Minutes
Chrome is a free Web browser developed by Google. It is considered one of the best for Windows, Linux and OS X, as well as for smartphones running Android or iOS. Read on to learn how to build an extension for it within minutes.
Apart
from an easy-to-use interface, Google Chrome offers users a range of key features. These include: Bookmarks and settings synchronisation: This allows users to synchronise bookmarks, history and other such important settings through their Google account. Web standards support: Chrome supports the latest standards such as HTML5, CSS3, etc. Security: The browser warns users when they attempt to visit a site flagged as potentially harmful (malware or phishing sites). Plugins: Chrome supports third party plugins such as NPAPI, ActiveX, etc. Privacy: Chrome’s private browsing feature prevents the browser from permanently storing any history or cookies from the websites visited. User interface: This browser has tabs and Omni Box (a URL box, which combines functions of both the address bar and the Google search box). Themes: Users can install these to alter the appearance of their Chrome browser. Automatic Web page translation: When Chrome detects a language which is not the user’s preferred choice as set during installation, it automatically asks the user whether or not to translate it. Extensions: Chrome allows users to use third-party features via extensions.
What are Google Chrome extensions?
Google Chrome extensions are browser extensions, which enhance, augment or add some extra features to the Chrome browser. These extensions are basically written using common Web technologies like HTML, JavaScript and CSS. The extensions are hosted on the Chrome Web Store. This is an extension gallery, through which users can download and install the extension.
Let us now create an extension for Chrome.
Creating an extension
We are now going to develop a simple and useful extension. Let us call it the ‘WikiSearch’ extension, which will allow users to search any highlighted word on wikipedia.org. Users will highlight the word they wish to know more about, in the browser, and then right-click the highlighted word, before selecting the ‘WikiSearch’ option from the context menu. After doing this, users will be redirected to the relevant Wikipedia page.