How to create a chrome extension to change the default tab

Question

I would like to create a chrome extension which changes my default tab in chrome browser.

Inside the page I will put my favorite websites, which I think I can handle using HTML + CSS. My difficult part is how to make it become a chrome extension because I have never done it before.

Can anyone give me some basic steps which I could start with?

Answer 1

You are looking for what's called Override Pages.

An extension can declare that it supplies a new newtab page. Here's a strictly minimal manifest for it:

{
  "manifest_version": 2,
  "name": "My awesome New Tab override",
  "version": "1.0",
  "chrome_url_overrides" : {
    "newtab": "newtab.html"
  }
}

Then you can use this manifest, together with a newtab.html and required resources, to make a simple extension.

There are many guides past that point; you can see the Learn Basics part of the official docs. Remember you can always ask a new question here if you run into specific implementation questions.