The first question that pops into my head (being aware that this is a popular category of apps) is: when do people look at blank tabs? Whenever I open a new tab, it's with the intention of entering an address or a search term, and any content would be an unwelcome distraction.
I'd be more likely to use something like this if it lived under a regular domain name and I could put it into a pinned tab, personally.
drdaeman 85 days ago [-]
I have frequently used sites listed on my new tab, and use those to quickly navigate without typing.
Besides that, I don't use or care about anything on the "new tab" tab. Backgrounds, sounds, weather, news - that's all junk/noise to me. There seems to be no value for me in having them on the empty tab, when they're a click (or, in case of the weather, a glance on my phone or watch) away.
Just how it works for me, of course. Other's mileage may vary.
bityard 85 days ago [-]
I do the same as you, but I know of plenty of people (even some developers) whose computing workflow looks like this: Boot computer, log in, start web browser, make it full screen. And that is where they work/play for the whole day.
That describes ChromeOS users of course, but there are Apple and Windows (and presumably Linux) users who have the same workflow.
Liquix 85 days ago [-]
it's hard to believe a developer working in a fullscreen browser all day could be anywhere near as productive as an equally-skilled dev using a terminal/keyboard-based workflow. how does one install packages, ssh into boxes, extract data from files, etc? or maybe they only work with cloud services and use webapp IDEs/terminals? seems like a bizarre choice (for devs specifically)
connicpu 85 days ago [-]
I don't literally spend all day in a browser, but I technically use one most of the day since vscode is based on Electron. My second monitor flips between Firefox and my terminal tmux session, about a 50/50 time split. I'm sure there's plenty of other developers like me, using the terminal for a good number of system tasks but just can't kick the mouse habit completely in their editor.
reddotchaser 85 days ago [-]
Maybe cloud IDEs are mandated by orgs in some cases! I’d leave on day 1
georg-stone 85 days ago [-]
Lots of orgs use Replit, which is just a cloud IDE anyways
akdev1l 84 days ago [-]
Web terminals are alright. I can work at full capacity from my iPad thanks to them.
RDP does exist of course as well as something like Guacamole so one is not limited to only terminals or web IDEs
diggan 85 days ago [-]
> The first question that pops into my head (being aware that this is a popular category of apps) is: when do people look at blank tabs? Whenever I open a new tab, it's with the intention of entering an address or a search term, and any content would be an unwelcome distraction.
My "startpage" is a four-column list of stuff I usually browse. And usually I sit with my left hand at the left hand side of the keyboard, and with my hand on the mouse on the right. Doing CTRL+T then clicking on where I wanna go, is usually faster and less movements needed than having to manually type the one or two first letters.
I tried sometimes to put "widgets" or other things (like widget on a smartphone) but it's true what you say, it's an unwelcome distraction. But a couple of simple lists seems fine, for me.
bcye 84 days ago [-]
I recently configured my new tab page to be a minimal html file, with a list of commonly used links and a hotkey associated with each.
I can immediately redirect to any with 0-9 and still have quick access to the address bar via ctrl+k
rascul 84 days ago [-]
> when do people look at blank tabs?
Sometimes I'll open a new tab and click the site I want from my commonly used sites Firefox presents to me on the new tab page. In such cases my hand is already on the mouse and two clicks is about the quickest I can get to one of those sites.
I'm the same. The only exception is on mobile, sometimes I'll use the quick pinned bookmarks on the new tab page. But on desktop I load a homepage when I launch the browser and only open a new tab when I need to enter a URL or search query.
igornadj 85 days ago [-]
A blank tab is super useful when you just want to make some mental space. When you're taking a break but don't want to close everything down or switch to another app.
It's just some inspiration I can have when typing in my URL bar I guess
kelvinjps10 85 days ago [-]
I leave a new tab open, and seeing this kind of information is useful
LauraMedia 85 days ago [-]
On my work device, I have daily.dev installed. Every work day, I usually invest 15-20 minutes of catching up with recent news about all things dev and having it as the "new tab" helps me not forgetting about it.
Other than that, yeah, I usually CTRL+T and write right away.
davgoldin 85 days ago [-]
Looks nice, I wish you best of luck! I personally haven't seen my "new tab" page in a very long time. What I'm doing instead: in current tab hit Cmd+L to focus on address bar, type query/address hit Option+Enter to open resulted page in a new tab. Skipping a bunch of clicks and the "new tab" page. Should be Ctrl+L Alt+Enter on Windows.
klez 85 days ago [-]
I'm curious: is there a particular reason for this very specific workflow? Is there an advantage I'm not seeing over Ctrl+T, type url, press Enter? Or is it just the way you do it?
davgoldin 85 days ago [-]
Just something I got used to do. My right palm is always conveniently hovering above the right Ctrl, Alt and L, Enter keys, making those combos easy and instant.
After hitting Ctrl+L, I usually do one of these: 1) "Enter" to discard current page; 2) "Alt+Enter" to open in new tab; 3) "Ctrl+Enter" to open in new tab but keep focus on current page (e.g. read later); and 4) "Esc" if I got an answer from the address bar (math, currency, history, already open page, etc).
tzot 84 days ago [-]
> Is there an advantage I'm not seeing over Ctrl+T
My own experience is that all of the times I press Ctrl+T is to open a new tab to enter a location I want to navigate to; I don't care much for what the new tab displays (this is why I set my default new tab to a blank page), and if I did, it would probably be a distraction.
nsonha 84 days ago [-]
Everyone who knows hotkeys does this.
klez 84 days ago [-]
This what? Ctrl+T -> Type -> Enter or Ctrl+L -> Type -> Alt+Enter?
Personally I do know the hotkeys and I know that Alt+Enter opens the url in a new tab, but I never use the second one. That's why I was asking.
nsonha 84 days ago [-]
Ctrl + L, you don't wanna remember 2 different hot keys for new tab and replace (current tab's) url
majkinetor 84 days ago [-]
That "type of worklofw" is the main workflow. The difference is that he is using a shortcut rather than clicking URL bar. U dont always need a new tab.
klez 84 days ago [-]
If I don't need a new tab I'll just do Ctrl+L like they do, but we were discussing specifically about the workflow to open a new tab:
> What I'm doing instead: in current tab hit Cmd+L to focus on address bar, type query/address hit Option+Enter to open resulted page in a new tab.
saghm 85 days ago [-]
If you like saving clicks, maybe the new tab page I've been using for years might interest you[0]. I like being able to just open a new tab and go to a page with a single keystroke, so I threw this together years ago to let me define a custom list of shortcuts that I can jump to by hitting the key of which index the site I want (originally I had used a Chrome extension that did something similar, but when I switched to Firefox and couldn't find anything similar enough that I liked, I realized it would be fairly easy to make as a static page that would work on any browser).
I built a chrome extension to optimize this workflow, because the address bar search in Chrome is terrible (as in: it requires you to @-mention what kind of thing you're searching for.)
Ctrl-T opens a new tab page, <tab> highlights the search bar, and then I get instantaneous search over open tabs, bookmarks, and history. Everything stays 100% local.
You could simplify it a tiny bit by using Ctrl+T to open a new tab and simply entering the query there, then pressing enter. Saves you the combo on the second hotkey.
Aaaaand it actually does show the new tab page.
dtgriscom 85 days ago [-]
Holy cannoli! Good shortcuts: thanks.
dominicrose 84 days ago [-]
there was a time when I configured my mouse to have buttons for ctrl+w, ctrl+t, ctrl+shift+t, ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab and I actually used them... until I had to use another mouse on another computer
wruza 82 days ago [-]
It’s fine to have your workshop set up unlike a generic empty room.
elpocko 85 days ago [-]
I already have the minimal number of features in my new tab in Firefox and I didn't even need to install a 3rd party addon: it's called "Blank page", you can find it in the settings.
hambes 85 days ago [-]
I've been using Tabby Cat [1] for a few years now and under no circumstance will I replace my cute cats with a productivity tool.
Neat! I use the Tabagotchi extension. There's a little monster that grows and then dies when you have too many tabs open. Helps me keep down the tab-clutter.
- I have a decent amount of bookmarks and bookmark folders, toggling on the bookmarks makes the new tab overwhelmed and other things don't show. Would be nice to just pin a few.
- The to do list is hard to see on some background combinations (e.g. black text over dark green trees)
You might like my extension: https://tabomagic.com. Bookmarks are hidden by default, but as soon as you type something into the search bar, all matching bookmarks show.
user3939382 85 days ago [-]
On every new FF install I have to go out of my way to set it to a plain black background. Custom CSS in hidden directories, major PITA.
cpressland 85 days ago [-]
Any guides for that? My blank page feels like a flash bang going off sometimes.
scary-size 84 days ago [-]
I don’t like that Chrome forces you to install an extension to modify the new tab (to such an extent). With Safari, I have it pointed at a local HTML file. That file contains a mini web app with my bookmarks. It has keyboard shortcuts, history and fuzzy search built into it.
arp242 84 days ago [-]
For Firefox I have my own little extension that just loads a HTML page with more or less the same as what you're describing. I presume you can also do that with Chrome, but I don't use it so idk.
I don't really get why this isn't just a setting, but ah well. There are some extensions that do this out there, but I found all behaved wonky. I'm not sure if they're "doing it wrong" or because I have it easier as I don't need any settings and can just load a static HTML file. I'm not an expert on any of this.
And then in newtab.html you can just put anything. It has the clipboardRead permission for some JS code I have to add a "go" button if the clipboard contains an URL
georg-stone 84 days ago [-]
Really? You can do that? How?
scary-size 84 days ago [-]
In desktop Safari, open Settings, select General, then enter a "file://..." URL in the "Homepage" text field.
triclops200 85 days ago [-]
Really nice!
I'd really like to see more than one todo list option on the main page, personally, so I can get my entire task list (or at least a large number of tasks) shown to me every time I open a new tab. Would be nice as an option, at least
georg-stone 85 days ago [-]
Thanks so much for the feedback! I have just added that to the list!
venatiodecorus 85 days ago [-]
if anything i'd think integration with proper todo list apps would be the way to go
georg-stone 85 days ago [-]
Good idea! I tried setting up an integration with TickTick, but their API is jank, so I gave up. I will try Todoist soon and maybe Things.
kaiwenwang 85 days ago [-]
I've always just used the Bookmarks page with a link to my calendar & tasks as the new tab, in addition to whatever classes/programs/events I need quick access to
ukuina 85 days ago [-]
What about good ol' about:blank ?
lionkor 85 days ago [-]
I use about:blank together with only showing the bookmarks menu bar on new tab pages, and it's basically perfect.
Then again, I almost always type in domains, I don't search for most websites - I know their domains or their duckduckgo !bang, or have a bookmark.
Kavenerinds 85 days ago [-]
As a longtime user of Momentum that switched to Bonjourr about 5 months ago, this looks cool. The search function would be the reason for me to switch to this. Thanks for sharing!
valdrinNereth 85 days ago [-]
It looks pretty nice, good job!
The bookmarks feature is nice actually, but since I have almost a thousand of them saved in my browser, the page tries to load all of them and I couldn't find anything to remove it only from the new tab page.
I'd strongly suggest you to add a simple feature of custom bookmarks, separated from browser bookmarks.
kkfx 84 days ago [-]
Aesthetically nice, though for me personally a new tab page is mostly a quick access bookmark page where I can configure the appearance a bit, preferably in text/something already existing like Buku, so I can re-create Firefox profile nearly automatically. The over aspects are near noise confronting to bookmarks.
atulvi 85 days ago [-]
Also checkout Minim for chrome. Very Minimal and Open Source
I recently just created my own custom new tab extension. Closed source because it's literally just for me. It does a few nieche things e.g. syncing a todo list that also appears on a e-ink display. I like it. I also like that it's something that's just for me.
mherrmann 85 days ago [-]
The landing page looks awesome. Congratulations on the nice design.
I suspect you are being hammered with requests now. Because in both Brave and Chrome, there is about a .5 second delay until the new tab page appears. Until then, there is just a black screen.
georg-stone 84 days ago [-]
For the first time, it can take a while because it needs to cache the data url of an image for offline usage. After that, it should load faster. If you have any performance issues, please open a GitHub issue
- The dark overlay when customising the screen makes it hard to see the visual adjustments- And
- Can the clock default to system (12 or 24 hours)?
- Can I add the pinned tabs I had on the default home screen somehow?
georg-stone 85 days ago [-]
When saying pinned tabs, you mean shortcuts, right?
I have added these suggestions to the to-do list and should come out in the next update!
Y-bar 85 days ago [-]
Yes, I did not know what they were called.
georg-stone 85 days ago [-]
Currently, you can't. Chrome doesn't have a built-in API for getting these, but you can have a bookmarks widget.
Y-bar 85 days ago [-]
What about Firefox? Which is what I am using.
georg-stone 85 days ago [-]
After some research, it doesn't seem like Firefox supports it.
jesprenj 85 days ago [-]
I really dislike that you can no longer create a home page that opens on a new tab in firefox. You can still do that on mobile browsers, for example kiwi browser. I have a homepage [0] with large links for resources I frequently visit and I really miss having this as my home page on my computer.
This site shows the steps. I tried it and mine is working. Firefox Developer Edition.
djbusby 85 days ago [-]
I love these things. I have a custom NTP for my Chrome and FF profiles. It's my productivity hack.
I put all my super frequent bookmarks there, big buttons are easy to click, keyboard shortcut.
Doesn't sync tho :(
yapyap 85 days ago [-]
> Doesn't sync tho :(
maybe try synchronizing over github or gitlab thru git?
heyinzyh 85 days ago [-]
I have rarely used new tab since I started using arc.
It is most practical for new tabs on chrome to have portals for websites that are frequently visited by myself.
Neat landing page anyway.
jpcom 85 days ago [-]
Reminds me of the mac lock screen, nicely done!
bsimpson 85 days ago [-]
I'm surprised to see an open source project with a professional-looking `.app` site and a privacy policy.
butz 84 days ago [-]
about:blank is the best new tab page.
smusamashah 84 days ago [-]
Feedback: more screenshots please. I am on phone but even if I open the extension store link, it has only those 3 screenshots.
Looking at those 3 images, I have absolutely no clue how it is a customizable new tab page? What does the to do list looks like? Can I have custom widgets? Can it do custom css?
red_admiral 85 days ago [-]
Looks great!
Once upon a time, when you opened a new browser window (tabs were not a thing yet), you got something called the homepage. Some adware you installed changed that, and that caused pushback - it was generally agreed that the homepage belonged to the user and they could set it however they liked.
These days, the new tab page has taken over most of the role of the homepage, to the point that when my browser starts I see the new tab page. I actually had to check what my homepage is set at because I never see it (it's about:blank apparently).
Browser manufacturers mostly agree that the new tab page belongs to them, not the user. I tried Brave a while back and it wouldn't let me change the thing in the first place (I think that's fixed now). Would you like some sponsored links carefully curated for you? News from a source we have an advertising agreement with? (In this country, if you try and adjust your "news source" in anything Microsoft-owned, there's only one option and it's a right-wing tabloid.) The default new tab page is basically an ad, and you can't just change it you need someone to write an _extension_ for that. Good luck if you're not a developer.
People writing ad-free new tab extensions for the rest of us are performing tikkun olam. May the Lord bless you.
torgoguys 85 days ago [-]
It looks nice and works well.
Unrelated, but I think we all need to migrate to a new word instead of "minimal" for such things. Perhaps just "simple." I get what we all mean as applied to this project, but it isn't what minimal typically means in English. A minimal new tab experience would be a blank tab.
georg-stone 85 days ago [-]
I agree! "Minimalistic" would probably have been a better choice for this project.
croisillon 85 days ago [-]
next on the list are the js frameworks called "vanilla"
85 days ago [-]
AbraKdabra 85 days ago [-]
Nice project, but I've been using the "Earth View from Google Earth" extension for Chrome for more than 10 years I think and I find it really difficult to part ways with it no matter how many features the new extension in the block has, maybe someday someone will add that feature to a new extension and I will be able to replace it.
85 days ago [-]
Ringz 85 days ago [-]
> Flowtide is a beautiful, smart New Tab page for your browser.
The new tab, the web's equivalent of a blank page. Staring at a blank page is sometimes associated with maddening frustration, but in most cases it's actually the possibility of something new that captures us.
Use a warm off-white, not unlike YC's background, and render the brand logo in a subdued grey at the bottom of the tab/page. Make it a link to a landing page on their site: "You love new possibilities. Crane stands ready to serve your imagination."
Rendered at 22:21:11 GMT+0000 (UTC) with Wasmer Edge.
The first question that pops into my head (being aware that this is a popular category of apps) is: when do people look at blank tabs? Whenever I open a new tab, it's with the intention of entering an address or a search term, and any content would be an unwelcome distraction.
I'd be more likely to use something like this if it lived under a regular domain name and I could put it into a pinned tab, personally.
Besides that, I don't use or care about anything on the "new tab" tab. Backgrounds, sounds, weather, news - that's all junk/noise to me. There seems to be no value for me in having them on the empty tab, when they're a click (or, in case of the weather, a glance on my phone or watch) away.
Just how it works for me, of course. Other's mileage may vary.
That describes ChromeOS users of course, but there are Apple and Windows (and presumably Linux) users who have the same workflow.
RDP does exist of course as well as something like Guacamole so one is not limited to only terminals or web IDEs
My "startpage" is a four-column list of stuff I usually browse. And usually I sit with my left hand at the left hand side of the keyboard, and with my hand on the mouse on the right. Doing CTRL+T then clicking on where I wanna go, is usually faster and less movements needed than having to manually type the one or two first letters.
I tried sometimes to put "widgets" or other things (like widget on a smartphone) but it's true what you say, it's an unwelcome distraction. But a couple of simple lists seems fine, for me.
I can immediately redirect to any with 0-9 and still have quick access to the address bar via ctrl+k
Sometimes I'll open a new tab and click the site I want from my commonly used sites Firefox presents to me on the new tab page. In such cases my hand is already on the mouse and two clicks is about the quickest I can get to one of those sites.
Other than that, yeah, I usually CTRL+T and write right away.
After hitting Ctrl+L, I usually do one of these: 1) "Enter" to discard current page; 2) "Alt+Enter" to open in new tab; 3) "Ctrl+Enter" to open in new tab but keep focus on current page (e.g. read later); and 4) "Esc" if I got an answer from the address bar (math, currency, history, already open page, etc).
My own experience is that all of the times I press Ctrl+T is to open a new tab to enter a location I want to navigate to; I don't care much for what the new tab displays (this is why I set my default new tab to a blank page), and if I did, it would probably be a distraction.
Personally I do know the hotkeys and I know that Alt+Enter opens the url in a new tab, but I never use the second one. That's why I was asking.
> What I'm doing instead: in current tab hit Cmd+L to focus on address bar, type query/address hit Option+Enter to open resulted page in a new tab.
[0]: https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/4773156
Ctrl-T opens a new tab page, <tab> highlights the search bar, and then I get instantaneous search over open tabs, bookmarks, and history. Everything stays 100% local.
https://tabomagic.com
Aaaaand it actually does show the new tab page.
[1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tabby-cat/mefhakmgc...
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabagotchi-ne...
- I have a decent amount of bookmarks and bookmark folders, toggling on the bookmarks makes the new tab overwhelmed and other things don't show. Would be nice to just pin a few.
- The to do list is hard to see on some background combinations (e.g. black text over dark green trees)
- I like the command palette idea, but would be nice to be able to add my own (https://github.com/thingbomb/flowtide/blob/main/src/componen...)
I don't really get why this isn't just a setting, but ah well. There are some extensions that do this out there, but I found all behaved wonky. I'm not sure if they're "doing it wrong" or because I have it easier as I don't need any settings and can just load a static HTML file. I'm not an expert on any of this.
For those interested, in manifest.json I have:
And then in newtab.html you can just put anything. It has the clipboardRead permission for some JS code I have to add a "go" button if the clipboard contains an URLThen again, I almost always type in domains, I don't search for most websites - I know their domains or their duckduckgo !bang, or have a bookmark.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/minim-a-minimal-new...
I recently just created my own custom new tab extension. Closed source because it's literally just for me. It does a few nieche things e.g. syncing a todo list that also appears on a e-ink display. I like it. I also like that it's something that's just for me.
I suspect you are being hammered with requests now. Because in both Brave and Chrome, there is about a .5 second delay until the new tab page appears. Until then, there is just a black screen.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bwnt-new-tab/doiinc...
A few first impressions:
- The dark overlay when customising the screen makes it hard to see the visual adjustments- And
- Can the clock default to system (12 or 24 hours)?
- Can I add the pinned tabs I had on the default home screen somehow?
I have added these suggestions to the to-do list and should come out in the next update!
[0] http://splet.4a.si/dir/home.shtml
https://www.howtogeek.com/333805/how-to-change-or-customize-...
This site shows the steps. I tried it and mine is working. Firefox Developer Edition.
I put all my super frequent bookmarks there, big buttons are easy to click, keyboard shortcut.
Doesn't sync tho :(
maybe try synchronizing over github or gitlab thru git?
Neat landing page anyway.
Looking at those 3 images, I have absolutely no clue how it is a customizable new tab page? What does the to do list looks like? Can I have custom widgets? Can it do custom css?
Once upon a time, when you opened a new browser window (tabs were not a thing yet), you got something called the homepage. Some adware you installed changed that, and that caused pushback - it was generally agreed that the homepage belonged to the user and they could set it however they liked.
These days, the new tab page has taken over most of the role of the homepage, to the point that when my browser starts I see the new tab page. I actually had to check what my homepage is set at because I never see it (it's about:blank apparently).
Browser manufacturers mostly agree that the new tab page belongs to them, not the user. I tried Brave a while back and it wouldn't let me change the thing in the first place (I think that's fixed now). Would you like some sponsored links carefully curated for you? News from a source we have an advertising agreement with? (In this country, if you try and adjust your "news source" in anything Microsoft-owned, there's only one option and it's a right-wing tabloid.) The default new tab page is basically an ad, and you can't just change it you need someone to write an _extension_ for that. Good luck if you're not a developer.
People writing ad-free new tab extensions for the rest of us are performing tikkun olam. May the Lord bless you.
Unrelated, but I think we all need to migrate to a new word instead of "minimal" for such things. Perhaps just "simple." I get what we all mean as applied to this project, but it isn't what minimal typically means in English. A minimal new tab experience would be a blank tab.
Than, please, add a screenshot to the repository.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42201300
White label this and sell it to luxury brands. Sell it to Crane Stationary, Leuchtturm1917. Here's your potential customer list: https://thepleasureofwriting.com/pages/shop-paper-by-brand
Use a warm off-white, not unlike YC's background, and render the brand logo in a subdued grey at the bottom of the tab/page. Make it a link to a landing page on their site: "You love new possibilities. Crane stands ready to serve your imagination."