How We Built a ChatGPT Shortcut for the Chrome Browser

What motivated me to build an extension and my thought process behind it

Many people are familiar with ChatGPT, a powerful technology capable of tasks such as copywriting, answering questions, translation, and almost anything else related to the text.

It has become so advanced, that New York City schools have banned it to prevent students from cheating on home assignments. I am not a student anymore, so I personally use it many times per day to accomplish my routine tasks.

I use it so often that I find it annoying to copy the text I want to edit, open a new chat.openai.com page, paste the text there, write my request, get ChatGPT’s results, and then copy and paste it back where I need it.

First of all, let me tell you how exactly I use ChatGPT and what use cases I found the most helpful for myself.

I am from Ukraine, and although many of us have studied English since elementary school, not many people are able to use it fluently in everyday life. Even if you can read English books and understand almost everything there, I doubt that you will be able to write blog posts in English that native speakers find clear and well-written. I am not an exception.

I spent a year living in the United States, so I can read and speak fluently, but writing can still be a challenge for me. That’s why I often use ChatGPT to correct my grammar and spelling errors. Nobody wants to look foolish when sending emails to venture capitalists. I’m sure many of you use Grammarly for that purpose.

Typically, I have a rough draft of an email. I am clear on the message I want to convey, but I still use ChatGPT to check for grammatical and spelling errors. If I feel that my text sounds awkward, I ask ChatGPT to rephrase it in a way that a native speaker would write it.

Once again, you need to write a draft, copy-paste it to the chat.openai.com page, write your prompt, receive an answer, and copy-paste it back. Pretty annoying if you have a lot of emails.

Now imagine this: you write an email, press Cmd+J, click “Improve writing” and receive a revised version, press enter — you have a polished, error-free email. Boom!

Nowadays, I often turn to ChatGPT when I have a question instead of using Google. The reason is simple — ChatGPT can provide me with a specific answer to my question without the need to look through multiple links. But definitely, you should be cautious with the responses provided by the model, as it may mistakenly provide inaccurate information.

I also find it very helpful to ask the model to simplify information from Wikipedia pages on a nontrivial physics topic. As an example:

Now when I read an article and come across a section that seems a bit too hard for me, I simply highlight the passage without leaving the page, hit “Explain,” and bam! Everything is clear! No need to switch tabs or even use a search engine.

I am a maker and I am passionate about creating products. Occasionally, it is necessary to use a new technology to build what you want. Acquiring new skills is never easy, but ChatGPT can assist you in this endeavor as well.

You can ask the model to write code to complete a task, then copy and paste it into your VS Code and it’ll work like magic!

Take a look at this screenshot:

That’s awesome! Of course, this won’t always be the case.

But now you can do that without leaving StackOverflow:

As a beginner in JavaScript and React, I was excited to have the chance to learn more while working with more experienced developers in those areas.

I was shocked by the chaos that occurs in the web regarding working with user text selections and copy-pasting. There is no one solution that allows for replacing user’s text on any website! For instance, if you want to support Google Docs, you have to write specific code for that. Please, tell me that I am wrong 🙏🏻

So, if you decide to use it, please do not be angry in case it fails. Just drop me a line, and we will try to fix it!

Moreover, in React, the interface and logic are often closely linked, making it challenging to divide tasks among developers in small projects like that. It is convenient when one developer works on the user interface and the other on the backend. In our situation, the tasks are relatively small and frequently overlap. As a result, resolving conflicts during the merge process can take longer than if one developer had completed all of the tasks alone.

Overall, ChatGPT is a real game-changer that simplifies your life. If you have never tried it, just give it a try. The last time I used it, I generated a privacy policy and terms of service for our product. Oh… I lied to you. Last time I used it to rewrite some parts of that blog that you are reading. Insane!

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