Smiski YouTube Thumbnail Takeover — Warmup Project Devlog #3

Overview

Smisk-tube is finished! What started as a simple idea to put random Smiskis on YouTube thumbnails turned into a surprisingly challenging project. I learned a lot about Chrome extensions, JavaScript, DOM manipulation, and debugging dynamic websites.

What I accomplished

Thumbnail Detection: Updated the extension to work with YouTube’s newer thumbnail structure.
Smiski Overlays: Added randomized Smiskis with different sizes and positions.
Dynamic Loading: Made Smiskis appear on newly loaded thumbnails while scrolling.
Popup Controls: Finished the enable/disable button and persistent settings.
Debugging: Spent a lot of time figuring out why the thumbnails weren’t being detected and finally got the extension working.
Chrome Web Store: Completed the store listing, permissions, privacy information, and submitted Smisk-tube for review! 🚀

Final Thoughts

This project was definitely more difficult than I expected for something so simple, but it was a really fun introduction to building something that other people can actually install and use.
Now all that’s left is to wait for Google to review it and then I can ship this!
Project: COMPLETE
Chrome Web Store: Submitted

Until next time :D