GlassTab
A new-tab page for Chrome.
What it is
GlassTab is a Chrome extension that replaces the new-tab page with a glass-style dashboard. It has rotating wallpapers, a live clock, a quote of the day, quick links, theme switching, a YouTube playlist player, and live exchange rates from USD, EUR and GBP to Naira.
What I built
- A Manifest V3 extension in plain JavaScript, with no build step
- Theme switching, a clock, quotes and quick links
- Currency rates from the dollar, euro and pound into Naira
- A playlist player for YouTube
What broke
The playlist player wouldn't play inside an extension. Chrome gives extension pages a different origin than a normal website, and YouTube's embed refuses to work from it. I got around it with a two-hop relay on GitHub Pages: the extension talks to a page on a normal origin, and that page talks to YouTube.
Engineering decisions
I scoped it to ship, not to be feature-complete. A small extension that works is worth more than a big one that's half finished.
What it runs on
JavaScript, Chrome Manifest V3, GitHub Pages.