Added permissions to manifest file
Playing with sample JavaScript code searching Flickr for kitten images (https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/getstarted.html)
Simplified down to just a simple google search box.  Currently doesn't do anything when search is entered.
Moving away from Google CSE and trying a simple form approach and navigating to a hacked URL with the search string.  Pressing button appears to do something (search text disappears), but the page is not loaded as expected.
Currently have functionality to where a new tab will open and correctly execute a search string, but only for a hard-coded value.  Working on extracting text input from the user.
Works only with hard-coded value.  Currently embedded in tab function if needed.
Ran some tests with alert boxes, just to find that alerts from popups do not currently work (known bug).  Simplified and did away from message handling and replaced it with a simple URL to execute the search.  Worked with both Google and currently with My Anime List (MAL).  Next step is to extract search results to provide user with a multi-select and refine intended search.