What is FlashBug!?
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Extension summary
A colorful moving background which overrides New Tabs opened. Customizability ranges from colors of the metaballs, the size of them, and how many are on screen. The extension is extremely light and leaves Chrome's performance unnaffected; older systems may vary. A minimalistic extension which only affects the New Tab page; there is no search bar in the middle of the screen for New Tabs, however any typing in the New Tab page will automatically be rerouted to the URL bar, in no way hindering the ability to search Google.
To customize your background, click on the top-right puzzle icon, and in the dropdown you will see FlashBug! Clicking FlashBug! will open the customization window.
1.3 changes: Include spectrum cycling mode that can be toggled, which gently changes colors over time. Plans for 1.4: Adjustable speed in spectrum cycling, toggle-able on and off mode, optional searchbar/bookmark bar in the center of the screen.
Inspiration is drawn from The Coding Train, who coded this type of animation using Java in his YouTube Coding Challenge series, episode #28. Credit to Basile Pesin as well, who translated the original code from Java to JavaScript; the code used in this extension draws inspiration from the translated version by Basile Pesin.
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Risk impact
FlashBug! requires very minimum permissions.
Risk likelihood
FlashBug! has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.
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