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For your next side project, make a browser extension

geoffreylitt.com · 3,097 words · saved by 1 readers

In a previous post I’ve written about why browser extensions are an amazing platform for customizing existing software. Because the browser DOM can be hacked in open-ended ways, it’s possible to build extensions that modify the behavior of an app in ways that the original creators never anticipated or intended to support. Today I’ll make that point more concrete by sharing the story of a side project I made. Over the past couple years, I built a browser extension called Twemex that helps people find interesting ideas on Twitter. Twemex started as a tiny utility to improve my own Twitter experience, but it grew to have tens of thousands of users, and ultimately I sold the extension to Tweet Hunter in a recent acquisition. In this post, I’ll reflect on that experience and share some of the unique advantages (and tradeoffs) of building an extension instead of building an entire new app. I’ll also share a few of the tactics I used to create a successful extension. Most importantly, I’ll ar

January 2023 For your next side project, make a browser extension Reflections on the benefits of tweaking an existing app, instead of starting from scratch. In a previous post I've written about why browser extensions are an amazing platform for customizing existing software. Because the browser DOM can be hacked in open-ended ways, it's possible to build extensions that modify the behavior of an app in ways that the original creators never anticipated or intended to support. Today I'll make that point more concrete by sharing the story of a side project I made. Over the past couple years, I b

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