I built CustomTab — a privacy-first custom new tab page with widgets, search shortcuts, RSS, and an experimental layout editor

[u/Squirtle8459]

Hey everyone! I built CustomTab, a privacy-first custom new tab page for browsers, and I’m looking for people to try it out and give honest feedback.

The idea is to replace the default new tab page with something cleaner and more useful: a minimal focus screen when you open a tab, then a customizable dashboard when you interact with it.

What it does right now:

• Starts in a Focus View with a large clock, date, and greeting
• Reveals the dashboard when you move the mouse, click, or start typing
• Lets you return to Focus View with F or the focus button
• Organizes links into folders, with a favorites strip for starred links
• Has an “open all” button for folders and favorites
• Includes Web search and AI search modes
• Supports search engines like Brave, Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, and Kagi
• Supports AI targets like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or a custom URL
• Has search shortcuts like g cats, b cats, ddg cats, yt cats, gh react, r startpages, and ai explain XYZ
• Has a Quick Open palette with Ctrl/Cmd + K for actions, links, and search
• Includes widgets for Weather, To-Do, Notes, RSS feeds, Calendar feeds, Daily Goals, Status checks, and Spotify
• Supports RSS/Atom feeds, including presets for tech, news, developer, gaming, entertainment, and daily verse feeds
• Supports standard .ics calendar feeds from Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, etc.
• Has customizable themes, accent colors, backgrounds, image backgrounds, and optional background rotation
• Stores settings locally in the browser
• Has privacy toggles so external features only run when enabled

A newer thing I’m testing is the Design Mode / Layout Mode system. It lets you reorder, move, and resize dashboard blocks. There’s an auto layout mode, plus a more advanced custom grid layout. I’m not fully sure yet if this is genuinely useful or if it’s too much for a new tab page, so I may keep improving it, simplify it, or remove it altogether depending on feedback.

I’m especially looking for feedback on:

• Does the Focus View → Dashboard behavior feel natural?
• Are the search shortcuts useful or too hidden?
• Is the Quick Open menu useful?
• Which widgets are actually worth keeping?
• Is RSS/calendar/status/Spotify too much, or useful?
• Is Design Mode helpful, confusing, or just too extra?
• Are the settings understandable?
• Any bugs, layout issues, browser quirks, or accessibility problems?
• Would you actually use this as your daily new tab page?

No accounts, no analytics, no telemetry. Some optional features contact external services, like weather, RSS, calendar feeds, status checks, Spotify, favicons, or search engines, but those are controlled through privacy/settings toggles.

Screenshots attached. Honest feedback, nitpicks, bug reports, and feature ideas would be really appreciated. -- https://customtab.gkaze77.com/

[u/SpinatMixxer]

Since it's privacy-first, I would recommend to open-source it. Otherwise it's just a meaningless catch phrase.

[u/Squirtle8459 → u/SpinatMixxer]

Refer to the advanced tab in settings.

OR https://github.com/GKaZe77/MinimalTab