Building Cimple a new tab that respects your attention

Most of my Chrome extensions started as selfish fixes. Something annoyed me. I patched it. Then I noticed other people had the same annoyance.

Cimple came from that pattern. I wanted a new tab that felt calm, looked clean, and still did a few useful things. Not another dashboard pretending to be a full productivity system.

So I built Cimple.

Why the default new tab was not enough

Chrome's default new tab is fine. Search bar. Shortcuts. Done.

After staring at it for years, fine started to feel empty. I tried a bunch of extensions. Most were either too heavy with animations and live wallpapers, too pretty without being useful, or packed with features I would never open.

I wanted something lighter. Minimal UI. Small utilities. No drama.

What I decided to ship first

I kept the first version tight on purpose.

It needed a simple to-do list with no login. It needed quick notes. It needed a clean clock and date. It needed custom backgrounds that would not kill performance.

I also set hard rules early. No random permissions. No remote code tricks. No feature pile-on. If something made the extension feel slower or noisier, it was out.

Design was the real filter

I wanted Cimple to feel close to Chrome itself. Quiet. Familiar. Not a flashy theme park.

Early builds had too much on screen. At one point I even tried an AI flow that could break a big task into checklist items for the to-do list. Interesting idea. Wrong for the product. It pulled attention away from the calm layout I was chasing.

So I cut. Then I cut again. Tasks, notes, and time each got their own space. If something did not earn that space, it left.

Shipping to the Chrome Web Store

Publishing an extension is mostly about being clear and honest.

You say exactly what it does. You show real screenshots. You stay transparent about privacy and data.

After review, it went live as Cimple Premium New Tab Experience and Productivity. You can install it from the Chrome Web Store listing.

The hard parts

Building the features was not the hardest part. Balance was.

Too many features and it becomes clutter. Too few and it feels pointless.

Then there is trust. New extensions often get the warning that says they are not trusted by Enhanced Safe Browsing. That is mostly reputation over time. You follow the rules, stay transparent, and wait. There is no clever shortcut.

Backgrounds without the performance tax

Cimple lets you pick backgrounds from quieter styles like Silk and Threads to more visual ones like Aurora, Particles, and Galaxy. The rule is the same for all of them. Look good. Stay light. If a background makes Chrome feel sluggish, it does not belong.

What early users told me

I shared it with a small group first. Their notes shaped the roadmap more than my own taste.

Some wanted more customisation. Some said please do not add too much. A few asked for quality of life changes like keyboard shortcuts.

That tension is healthy. I want Cimple to stay simple without becoming stuck.

How this fits with the rest of my work

I build more than one thing at a time. HelpingGeeks is the agency side. Creadefy is the credentials product. Cimple is the daily browser tool I wanted for myself.

Different surfaces. Same habit. Find a repeated friction, ship the smallest useful fix, then harden it with real usage.

What is next

I am exploring more theme options, better widget layouts, and optional integrations with tools people already use.

Every idea gets the same test. Does this help without cluttering the tab? If not, it waits.

Try it

If your new tab feels boring or overloaded, start here.

Product page cimple-ext.vercel.app

Install from the Chrome Web Store

Send feedback. A blunt critique is more useful than a polite like. I am still shaping this, and user notes are how it gets better.

Closing

Cimple was me redesigning a page I open dozens of times a day.

If you build extensions, start with your own friction. Ship the smallest useful version. Trim hard. Let real usage decide what grows next.

More of my build notes live on nikhilshukla.dev.