[HN Gopher] Show HN: Minimal, customizable new tab for Chrome/Fi...
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Show HN: Minimal, customizable new tab for Chrome/Firefox
Hello HN! Flowtide is a project I have been working on for about 2
months now. It is a customizable new tab page for Firefox or
Chrome. By default, it is configured to have a minimal amount of
features, but it can be configured to include a clock, to-do list,
or even soundscapes. Install: https://flowtide.app/ GitHub:
https://github.com/thingbomb/flowtide
Author : georg-stone
Score : 104 points
Date : 2024-11-25 15:51 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.flowtide.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.flowtide.app)
| jpcom wrote:
| Reminds me of the mac lock screen, nicely done!
| Y-bar wrote:
| This is great, giving it a try!
|
| 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?
| georg-stone wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Yes, I did not know what they were called.
| georg-stone wrote:
| Currently, you can't. Chrome doesn't have a built-in API
| for getting these, but you can have a bookmarks widget.
| Y-bar wrote:
| What about Firefox? Which is what I am using.
| georg-stone wrote:
| After some research, it doesn't seem like Firefox
| supports it.
| atulvi wrote:
| Also checkout Minim for chrome. Very Minimal and Open Source
|
| https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/minim-a-minimal-new...
| andrelaszlo wrote:
| It looks really nice.
|
| 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.
| kelvinjps10 wrote:
| I leave a new tab open, and seeing this kind of information is
| useful
| bityard wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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)
| reddotchaser wrote:
| Maybe cloud IDEs are mandated by orgs in some cases! I'd
| leave on day 1
| georg-stone wrote:
| Lots of orgs use Replit, which is just a cloud IDE
| anyways
| connicpu wrote:
| 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.
| georg-stone wrote:
| It's just some inspiration I can have when typing in my URL bar
| I guess
| lhamil64 wrote:
| 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.
| LauraMedia wrote:
| 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.
| diggan wrote:
| > 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.
| conceptualspace wrote:
| when i open a new tab its often to open a bookmark - so for me
| a speed dial is super useful. here's mine (open source):
| https://github.com/conceptualspace/yet-another-speed-dial
| georg-stone wrote:
| https://web.tabliss.io
| drdaeman wrote:
| 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.
| igornadj wrote:
| 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.
| rascul wrote:
| > 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.
| bcye wrote:
| 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
| torgoguys wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I agree! "Minimalistic" would probably have been a better
| choice for this project.
| croisillon wrote:
| next on the list are the js frameworks called "vanilla"
| Ringz wrote:
| > Flowtide is a beautiful, smart New Tab page for your browser.
|
| Than, please, add a screenshot to the repository.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42201300
| georg-stone wrote:
| I added it! Thanks so much for your feedback!
| elpocko wrote:
| 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.
| djbusby wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > Doesn't sync tho :(
|
| maybe try synchronizing over github or gitlab thru git?
| hxii wrote:
| Neat! Reminds me of Tabliss
| (https://github.com/joelshepherd/tabliss) as well.
| Kavenerinds wrote:
| 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!
| AbraKdabra wrote:
| 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.
| killjoywashere wrote:
| 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.
|
| 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."
| hambes wrote:
| 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.
|
| [1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tabby-
| cat/mefhakmgc...
| 59seconds wrote:
| 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.
|
| https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabagotchi-ne...
| triclops200 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Thanks so much for the feedback! I have just added that to the
| list!
| venatiodecorus wrote:
| if anything i'd think integration with proper todo list apps
| would be the way to go
| georg-stone wrote:
| 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.
| jesprenj wrote:
| 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.
|
| [0] http://splet.4a.si/dir/home.shtml
| razster wrote:
| In the about:config you should be able to add a custom url for
| new tab.
|
| 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.
| cwales95 wrote:
| Looks good.
|
| 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.
| user3939382 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Any guides for that? My blank page feels like a flash bang
| going off sometimes.
| porridgeraisin wrote:
| BWNT new tab is my favorite:
|
| https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bwnt-new-tab/doiinc...
| ukuina wrote:
| What about good ol' about:blank ?
| lionkor wrote:
| 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.
| davgoldin wrote:
| 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.
| dtgriscom wrote:
| Holy cannoli! Good shortcuts: thanks.
| Levitz wrote:
| 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.
| saghm wrote:
| 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).
|
| [0]: https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/4773156
| klez wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > 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.
| majkinetor wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| jtbetz22 wrote:
| 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.
|
| https://tabomagic.com
| dominicrose wrote:
| 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
| bsimpson wrote:
| I'm surprised to see an open source project with a professional-
| looking `.app` site and a privacy policy.
| heyinzyh wrote:
| 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.
| kaiwenwang wrote:
| 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
| valdrinNereth wrote:
| 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.
| mherrmann wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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
| red_admiral wrote:
| 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.
| smusamashah wrote:
| 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?
| zild3d wrote:
| Will try it out. Some initial feedback
|
| - 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...)
| jtbetz22 wrote:
| 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.
| butz wrote:
| about:blank is the best new tab page.
| scary-size wrote:
| 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.
| georg-stone wrote:
| Really? You can do that? How?
| scary-size wrote:
| In desktop Safari, open Settings, select General, then enter
| a "file://..." URL in the "Homepage" text field.
| arp242 wrote:
| 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.
|
| For those interested, in manifest.json I have:
| { "manifest_version": 2, "name":
| "newtab", "description": "newtab",
| "version": "0.5",
| "browser_specific_settings": {"gecko": {"id": "XXX@XXX.XXX"}},
| "chrome_url_overrides": {"newtab": "newtab.html"},
| "permissions": ["clipboardRead"] }
|
| 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
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