A Chrome extension can customize the browsing experience by adding functionality such as blocking ads and popups, formatting JSON, editing grammar, helping with vocabulary, designing, and programming. To create a Chrome extension, developers need to know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and use the manifest.json file to provide essential information about the extension. The extension's UI elements, including options pages and UI components, are created using web development technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The chrome_url_overrides key is used to override the default new tab page with a custom HTML file. To store data in the Chrome storage API, developers need to declare their intent in the permissions field of the manifest.json file and use the set() and get() methods to update and retrieve the stored data. By applying these concepts, developers can build Chrome extensions that enhance the browsing experience.