# A student took a geolocation extension to 2,000 users in three months, then sold it for $500 · Chrome extension

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> The name collides with "Spoof Geolocation," the category leader with 200k users, so the store put it in the leader's related-extensions slot. On top of that, in the first two months after launch it collected 20+ five-star reviews in indie-dev peer-testing circles and ended up with the highest rating in its category.

[Chrome extension](https://stringers.io/en/ext/index.md) · written 11-6

Spoof Geolocation: Location & Timezone Faker ·

# A student took a geolocation extension to 2,000 users in three months, then sold it for $500

**What it is** A Chrome side-panel extension: search a city or click a spot on the map, and it changes the location and timezone the browser reports to websites, with GPS jitter included.

**Why it took off** Its name collides with the category leader "Spoof Geolocation" (200k users), so the store placed it in the leader's related-extensions slot. Add 20+ five-star reviews from indie-dev peer testing in its first two months, and the top rating in its category.

**C** **How you could follow it** Don't build another location-changer extension. Copy the cold-start playbook instead: take a name that collides with the category leader, write an "Alternative to [competitor]" description, get the top 20 reviews through peer testing, localize into 50 languages, and wait for the related slot. If you want to make money, set up your website, content and Pro features from day one.

C grade: this category has 20 competitors, a wave of clones this year, and platform policy risk. This extension stopped at 2,000 users, had no revenue, and the author sold it for $500. Copying it to build another one isn't worth it; the lesson is the zero-cost cold-start playbook. Few people know about it yet

2,000 users · rating 4.739130434782608 (23)

Spoof Geolocation: Location & Timezone Faker is a Chrome extension that changes browser location and timezone. Listed in Jun 2026 27, it had only 1 users by Sep 315 and reached 25 by Oct 2,000, then stopped growing. None of its features are unique in the category. Its growth came from three things: a name that collided with the 200k-user category leader, placement in the leader's "related extensions" slot, and 20+ five-star reviews in its first two months. This cold-start playbook costs almost nothing and is worth understanding, but copying it to build another one caps out at the price the author set.

### "Busy with school"

In 2026 October, a seller named Tinsae Meseret listed two browser extensions for $800 on the website-flipping platform StartExus and on Reddit's r/saasforsale: a SoundCloud downloader with speed control for $300, and "hide your location from websites" for $500, which is this one.

The listing was plain about it: "No revenue is claimed." It was priced as buying a batch of installed users. It needed 2 hours of maintenance a week, and the reason for selling was one line: "Busy with school."

The extension's developer is listed as Bruv Coder, with no website, only a privacy policy page on GitHub Pages. One student, one weekend project, 2,000 users in three months, sold for $500.

### What it is

A Chrome side-panel extension: search for a city, or click a spot on a small OpenStreetMap map, and the GPS location the browser reports to websites becomes that place, with the timezone changing along with it. It also has:

- GPS jitter and random accuracy, so the spoofed location doesn't look like a fixed point, which gets past basic anti-spoofing checks.

- 5 saved locations and a dark interface, with all data stored locally.

- Store listings in 55 languages.

The store marks it as offering in-app purchases, but the description doesn't say what's sold, and there's no paywall. The use users mention most in reviews is developer testing: "Testing location-dependent features became so easy" and "Very handy for testing my web app from different locations."

### How it went from 315 to 2,000

User curve on extops.dev (read 11-06):

| Date | users | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 9-01 | 315 | 19 |
| 9-15 | 498 | 22 |
| 9-16 | 611 | 23 |
| 9-21 | 864 | 23 |
| 9-25 | 1,000 | 23 |
| 10-25 | 2,000 | 23 |
| 11-06 | 2,000 | 23 |

From 11-01 to 11-06 on the Chrome Web Store, it averaged 2,000 users a day and 23 ratings, averaging 4.74 stars.

**First: the name collided with the leader.** The category leader on Chrome is "Spoof Geolocation," listed in 2022 with 200k users. This extension's name starts with the exact same words, "Spoof Geolocation," and adds "Location & Timezone Faker" to pick up two more search terms. The last line of the description reads "Alternative to: GeoSpoof: Spoof Geolocation & Timezone - Spoof Geolocation," stuffing in both competitors' full names.

**Second: it got into the leader's "related extensions" slot.** In early November, it appeared in position 200 under "related extensions" on the 4k-user Spoof Geolocation listing, position 10 on GeoSpoof (4k users), and position 5,000 on the same-time clone Location Changer (3 users). For a two-thousand-user extension, a related slot on a top extension is most likely the biggest traffic source (inference). From Sep 15 to 21 it grew 74% in a week. The store listing shows no matching update (the Sep 28 7.2.0 came later), so the most likely cause is that it entered the related slot at that point or climbed in search ranking (inference; no per-channel data).

**Third: reviews came before users.** In Sep 1 it had only 315 users but already 19 ratings, about 6%. Normal extensions get ratings from roughly 1% of users. After Sep 16, users tripled, and no new ratings were added. The reviews cluster on Aug 21 and 22 (6 reviews) and Sep 7 to 13, and they almost all read like developers. One review, "So easy to test my web apps from various locations," was written by Alexandru Rada on Aug 22, and Aniket Lodh wrote the same sentence word for word on Sep 9. The developer Bruv Coder has accounts on indie peer-testing and launch platforms like Makers Wall ("you test mine, I test yours"), Tiny Startups and Nick Launches. These reviews were likely traded in peer-testing circles (inference, fairly confident). Their effect was to give a new extension 4.7 stars and 20+ reviews by September, the top rating in its category, which helps both store ranking and related slots.

No other channels turned up: on X, searches for "spoof geolocation" over the past ~4 months returned 0 posts; there were no TikTok or YouTube videos, no press coverage, and no ads. The Tiny Startups launch page had 0 votes.

### Why it stopped at 2,000

Because all three tactics only work once. Once the name collision is taken, the related-slot spot doesn't move forward on its own, and the reviews from peer testing ran out by September. The product itself has nothing that brings in users: no website, no tutorials, no content channel, so people who installed it had no reason to tell anyone else.

Compare GeoSpoof, the most polished player in the same category: it reached Chrome in 2026 March, has a website, blog and SEO landing pages, posted a Show HN in July, has a 137-comment discussion thread on the privacy community PrivacyGuides, was reviewed by French tech blogger Korben, and offers Firefox, Safari, iOS and a Pro subscription. Its Chrome user base is 10k, 5 times this extension's, and it has a path to revenue.

### Who it's competing with

Changing location and timezone is an old, crowded category on the Chrome Web Store. Chrome DevTools' built-in Sensors panel can also change location and timezone; ordinary users just don't know to use it.

| Competitors | Launched | Scale (Chrome Web Store) | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spoof Geolocation | 2022-05 | 200k, 4.2 points | Category leader; changes coordinates only, no map. Its name was collided with. |
| Location Guard (V3) | 2025-01 | 100k | Positioned on blurring location to protect privacy |
| Change Geolocation / Change Timezone | 2018 | 70k / 20k | Location and timezone split into two extensions |
| Vytal | Relatively early | 50k, store recommended | Changes location, timezone, locale and UA. More complete than this one. |
| Cloaq | 2024-10 | 30k, 4.43 points | Open source; location, timezone and locale changed together |
| GeoSpoof | 2026-03 | 10k, 4.41 points | Website, community, Show HN, VPN sync, WebRTC leak protection, Pro and iOS |
| Location Changer: Spoof Geolocation | 2026-06-18 | 5,000,3.95 ratings | Same-time, same-playbook clone, 9 days earlier, with more than twice the users |
| My Location Guard and others | 2026 | dozens to 2,000 | New ones every month |

It really differs on only two points: the side-panel map UI and GPS jitter. Changing location and timezone together was already done by GeoSpoof, Cloaq and Vytal. It wasn't the first to use this approach or the biggest. The same-time Location Changer used the same name-collision and multi-language playbook and did better.

There's also a risk layer: location-spoofing extensions already sit close to the line on Chrome Web Store policy, and a single review could get one pulled.

### If it were you

**The short take:** Don't build another position-changer plugin. This category has 20 rivals, and a wave of clones landed in the first half of this year. The best case is two thousand users, no revenue, and a $500 exit. What's worth taking is its cold-start playbook: in an old category people already search for, it went from 0 to a couple thousand users in three months with zero ad spend.

**Who it's for:** Indie developers trying to get the first users for a small extension, especially students and weekend projects, and anyone with an extension nobody has installed yet and no idea how to get it seen.

**Who it's not for:** Anyone who wants to make money from an extension (this playbook drives installs, not payments), anyone who wants to head-to-head compete in the same category, and anyone wary of platform policy risk.

**How to do it:** Find a Chrome Web Store category where top extensions have lots of users but the UI is old and hasn't been updated in years. Start the name with the words people in that category search for, and add one or two related terms; end the description with "Alternative to <full competitor name>." Make the UI more modern than the leader's, even if it's only one extra map or one side panel. Localize the store listing into 50+ languages. If you want to make money, follow GeoSpoof from day one: website, blog, a Pro feature. Otherwise two thousand users is the ceiling.

**How to get users:** In the first two weeks after launch, go to indie peer-testing platforms like Makers Wall and Tiny Startups, get the top 20 genuine reviews, and aim for the top rating in your category. Then wait for the store to place you in a top extension's "related extensions" slot. Note that trading reviews for testing sits on the edge of store rules, and reviews shouldn't read identically; this extension has two word-for-word duplicates. Then add a Show HN, relevant subreddits and niche communities. That's the part it skipped and GeoSpoof did.

**When to do it:** No specific date. But if the Chrome Web Store tightens name collisions or changes how related extensions are recommended, this playbook stops working.

**Signs we got it wrong:** (1) The buyer adds a paid feature and users and revenue keep growing, which would mean these installs are worth more than they look. (2) You run this playbook on your own extension and fail to get into any top extension's related slot within three months, which would mean its placement came from luck or something we didn't see. (3) Same-time clones like Location Changer also stall between 2,000 and 5,000, which would confirm the playbook's ceiling is right there.

[Chrome store page ↗](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/spoof-geolocation-locatio/denifdjehhdbkpcedkbjdajghhobfage)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spoof Geolocation (joue.quroi) | Chrome | 2022-05 | 200k users, 4.2/70 | Category leader, coordinates only, no map UI. This extension collides with its name and takes its related slot. |
| Location Guard (V3) | Chrome | 2025-01 | 100k users | Positioned on blurring location to protect privacy. This extension lets you set any city. |
| Change Geolocation / Change Timezone (Yubi) | Chrome | 2018 | 70k / 20k | Location and timezone split into two extensions. This extension changes both in one. |
| Vytal | Chrome | Relatively early | 50k, Featured | Changes timezone, location, locale and UA. More complete than this one. |
| Cloaq | Chrome/open source | 2024-10 | 30k, 4.43/87 | Open source; location + timezone + locale changed together. This extension adds the side-panel map and GPS jitter. |
| GeoSpoof | Chrome/Firefox/iOS/open source | 2026-03 | Chrome 10k, 4.41/29 | Has a website blog with SEO, a Show HN post, a PrivacyGuides community thread, VPN sync, WebRTC leak protection, Pro and an iOS version; this one calls itself a free alternative to it |
| Location Changer: Spoof Geolocation | Chrome | 2026-06-18 | 5,000,3.95/19 | A clone from the same period with the same approach that only changes location, not timezone |
| GTrack Geolocation Spoofing (Wiremo) | Chrome | 2025-08 | 10k | Aimed at local SEO rank tracking |
| Chrome DevTools Sensors/Locations | Big-company features | Years | Built into Chrome | Free and built in, but you have to open developer tools, which isn't friendly for regular users |

Where users come from

- **Confirmed** **name collision + competitor names stuffed into the description** : the name prefix matches the category's top extension, "Spoof Geolocation", which has 200k users; the description reads "Alternative to: GeoSpoof: Spoof Geolocation & Timezone - Spoof Geolocation"

- **Confirmed** **store "related extensions" slot** : per the chromestore related table, it ranks #4 in the related slot on Spoof Geolocation (200k) and GeoSpoof (10k), and #3 on Location Changer

- Inferred **reviews traded on a maker cross-testing platform** : developer Bruv Coder has accounts on Makers Wall, Tiny Startups, and Nick Launches; reviews cluster around 8-21/22, mostly in a developer-testing voice, with two identical word for word; 9-01 has only 315 users but 19 ratings

- **Confirmed** **localized into 55 languages** : the store page shows 55 languages

- Inferred **content / creators / press / ads** : x-radar shows 0 mentions; no TikTok, press coverage, or ads found

## Spoof Geolocation: Location & Timezone Faker: a geolocation spoofing extension built by a student that reached 2,000 users through name collision, related slots, and cross-reviews

- Store page: [chromewebstore.google.com/detail/spoof-geolocation-locatio/d…](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/spoof-geolocation-locatio/denifdjehhdbkpcedkbjdajghhobfage)

- Channel: Chrome (make_chrome_yours/privacy), 2026-06-27 launch, version 7.2.0 (2026-09-28 updates), 55 languages, store lists "in-app purchases", not a trader

- Developer: Bruv Coder (privacy page bruvcoder.github.io/Spoof, email armorking432@gmail.com); the StartExus listing shows the seller as Tinsae Meseret

- Data date: 2026-11-06/07

### Bottom line

This is an extension **that is very small, has stopped growing, and whose author is listing it for sale at $500** . It went from 0 to 2,000 users, and the reason isn't that the product is new. It's three things stacked together:

1. The name directly collides with the category's top legacy extension, "Spoof Geolocation" (joue.quroi, 200k users);

2. The store put it in the "related extensions" slot on that top extension's and GeoSpoof's detail pages;

3. In its first two months, it got 19–23 five-star reviews on a maker cross-testing platform, averaging 4.74, the highest in its category.

User growth accelerated in mid-September, from 25 to 1k in Sep and 25 to 2k in Oct, and then never moved again. There's no trace of content, creator, or press channels.

### 1. Data: how it grew

extops.dev's 90-day curve (https://extops.dev/extensions/denifdjehhdbkpcedkbjdajghhobfage, 2026-11-06 reads):

| Date | users | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-01 | 315 | 19 |
| 2026-09-08 | 429 | 20 |
| 2026-09-15 | 498 | 22 |
| 2026-09-16 | 611 | 23 |
| 2026-09-21 | 864 | 23 |
| 2026-09-25 | 1k | 23 |
| 2026-10-25 | 2k | 23 |
| 2026-11-06 | 2k | 23 |

- Our chromestore library item_snap shows that from 11-01 to 11-07 it stayed at 2,000 users and 23 ratings. ExtScope's daily growth on 7 was +0,30K on day 1.

- **Ratings came before users** : in Sep 1 it had only 315 users but already 19 ratings (about 6%, while normal extensions usually sit at 0.5–1%). After Sep 16 the rating count stalled at 23 while users grew more than 3 times. That means the ratings weren't left by organic users; they were collected early on, at launch (see section 3).

- From September 15 to 21 users rose 74% in a week (498→864). The store page shows no matching event: the Sep 28 7.2.0 came after this. The most likely explanation is that it got into the related-extensions slot of the top extension, or ranked up for the search term "spoof geolocation" (inferred, not verified).

### 2. Competitors: many people are doing the same thing

On the Chrome Web Store, "fake location / timezone" is a crowded, mature category, and Chrome DevTools has a built-in Sensors/Locations panel that can override location and timezone (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/settings/locations).

| Product | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spoof Geolocation(joue.quroi) | Chrome | 2022-05 | 200k users, 4.2/70 | Category leader, changes coordinates only, no map UI; **its name is the first half of this one's name** |
| Location Guard (V3) | Chrome | 2025-01 | 100k, 4.24/38 | An MV3 version of the older Location Guard, focused on privacy (blurred location) |
| gs location changer | Chrome | 2017 | 100k | An older SEO-oriented tool |
| Change Geolocation (Location Guard) / Change Timezone(Yubi) | Chrome | 2018 | 70k / 20k | Location and timezone split into two separate extensions |
| Spoof Timezone(joue.quroi) | Chrome | 2018 | 60k | Changes timezone only |
| Vytal | Chrome | Relatively early | 50k, Featured | Timezone + location + language/region + UA, more complete features |
| Cloaq | Chrome / open source | 2024-10 | 30k, 4.43/87 | Open source, changes location + timezone + language/region together |
| GeoSpoof | Chrome / Firefox / Safari / iOS / open source | Chrome 2026-03-18 | 10k, 4.41/29 | Has a website, blog, SEO landing pages, a Show HN post (2026-07), a PrivacyGuides discussion thread at floor 137, and coverage by Korben; supports VPN sync and WebRTC leak protection, with Pro and iOS versions. **This one describes itself in its description as its Alternative** |
| GTrack Geolocation Spoofing(Wiremo) | Chrome | 2025-08 | 10k, 4.72 | Aimed at local SEO rank tracking |
| Location Changer: Spoof Geolocation | Chrome | 2026-06-18 | 5,000,3.95/19 | A same-period clone of the same category, also localized into dozens of languages, launched 9 days earlier, with more than double the users |
| My Location Guard(SHIFT LLC) | Chrome | 2026-07 | 2,000 | Same-period clone |
| Change Location / GeoShift / HennyClever, etc. | Chrome | 2025–2026 | Dozens to hundreds | Small clones |

Conclusion: **this category has no shortage of products** . This one is just one of a batch of new clones from the first half of 2026, sitting mid-pack on users, and below the same-period "Location Changer: Spoof Geolocation".

### 3. Growth tactics (with evidence)

1. **Name collision + keyword stuffing (confirmed)** . The name is "Spoof Geolocation: …", the same as the top extension with 200k users. The last paragraph of the description directly reads "Alternative to: GeoSpoof: Spoof Geolocation & Timezone - Spoof Geolocation", stuffing the full names of two competitors in to capture search terms.

2. **Store "related extensions" slot (confirmed)** . The chromestore library's related table shows it appearing in the related slot at #4 on the Spoof Geolocation (200k) detail page, at #4 on GeoSpoof (10k), and at #3 on Location Changer (5k). For an extension with only 2,000 users, the related slots of top extensions are the biggest traffic source (inferred).

3. **Maker cross-testing / cross-review platforms trading ratings (highly likely)** .
    - Developer Bruv Coder has accounts on Makers Wall (makerswall.io, "you test mine, I test yours"), Tiny Startups, and Nick Launches.
    - Store reviews cluster around August 21–22 (5 reviews) and September 7–13, mostly in a developer voice such as "So easy to test my web apps from various locations". Two are word for word identical (Aniket Lodh 9-09, Alexandru Rada 8-22).
    - These ratings gave it 4.7 stars and 20+ reviews by September, the highest rating in its category, helping it rank and win related slots.

4. **Localization (confirmed)** : 55 languages (store page). Competitors are thin in minor-language searches, but how much this contributed is unclear.

5. **Launch platforms** : there is a launch page on Tiny Startups (0 upvotes). It brought in essentially no traffic.

6. **Channels not found** : x-radar shows 0 mentions each for "spoof geolocation" and "geospoof" over the last 120 days; no TikTok, YouTube, press coverage, or ads found; on Reddit there are only sale posts.

### 4. Retention and revenue

- The store lists "Offers in-app purchases", but the description has no payment information at all, and there is no website.

- The author 2026-10 listed two extensions for sale on StartExus and on Reddit r/saasforsale, $800 combined, with this one at $500. The listing says "No revenue is claimed", the reason for selling is "Busy with school", and the time investment is 2 hours a week (https://www.startexus.com/listings/two-browser-extensions-2-000-combined-users-800). The other extension sold alongside it is a SoundCloud download + playback speed extension (fobbgbjggnhhfkibdgajbpcnmphafplf in the library, 1,000 users, inferred to be this one).

- In Sep 29 permissions were cut from 9 to 6 (recall card record); current permissions include `<all_urls>`, privacy, tabs, sidePanel, storage, and windows.

- Whether users stick around can't be seen. The rating count stopped growing in mid-September, so there's no signal on organic user satisfaction.

### 5. Differentiation

The selling points it makes on its store page:

- A sidebar UI, with city search and an OpenStreetMap mini-map for picking a point;

- Changes location and timezone together;

- GPS jitter and random accuracy, to get past basic anti-spoofing checks;

- 5 saved locations, dark-mode UI, all data stored locally.

Compared with peers, only two things are truly different: **the sidebar + map UI** , and **simulated GPS jitter** . Changing location and timezone together was already done by GeoSpoof, Cloaq, and Vytal.

These selling points are **not** why it grew. What drove traffic was the name collision, the store's related slots, and the early high ratings. Its growth curve flattened at the end of October, which also shows the product itself had no ability to generate traffic on its own.

### 6. How many people have seen it

- **Nobody knows about it yet** . No press or X chatter, no public revenue. It only shows up on automated trackers like extops / ExtScope and on the StartExus listing page.

- Listed for sale at $500, so the author himself figures it's barely worth anything.

- "Copycat" doesn't really fit. The category was already crowded with clones, and this one is itself a follower of GeoSpoof and the leading Spoof Geolocation. I didn't see anyone copying it specifically.

### 7. What's worth borrowing

- For a small extension in an established category, the cheapest cold start is this combo: **a name that collides with the category leader + a description reading "Alternative to <full competitor name>" + collecting the first 20 high-rated reviews through peer-testing platforms + localizing into 50 languages** . Done this way, it can go from 0 to a thousand or two users in about three months, without spending money.

- But the ceiling is obvious, and it stopped at 2k. No website, no SEO landing pages, no content, no paywall, so no revenue. The GeoSpoof path (open source + Show HN + privacy communities + a website blog + iOS + Pro) is the one that actually turns into a business.

- If you wanted to acquire it: $500 for 2k users works out to $0.25 per user, but location spoofing carries risk under Chrome policy, and the growth has already flattened.

### 8. Still unclear

- Which trigger caused the mid-September acceleration (a related-extension placement, search ranking, or something else) is unknown. There's no install data broken down by channel.

- Whether all the reviews came from platforms like Makers Wall: I didn't capture the specific project pages there.

- What the "in-app purchase" actually sells: the description doesn't say, it may just be a checkbox.

- The original Reddit post was blocked by 403, so I only saw StartExus's summary of it.

### Sources

- Chrome Web Store listing and reviews pages (2026-11-06 read via r.jina.ai)

- extops.dev single-page curves; extscope.org detail page

- chromestore library: item, item_snap, related tables (2026-11-07 snapshots)

- StartExus listing page; Tiny Startups profile/bruv-coder; makerswall.io; nicklaunches.com/builders/bruv-coder

- GeoSpoof: geospoof.com, a PrivacyGuides discussion thread, a Show HN repost on nowfound.app (2026-07-02)

- x-radar search (0 posts)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.