Show HN: StartHQ - Chrome New Tab extension like the old tab page, but better | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: StartHQ - Chrome New Tab extension like the old tab page, but better

chrome.google.com

45 pointsolegp41 comments

So the backstory is that Google replaced the New Tab page this week with a new one that many users don't like: https://twitter.com/search?q=chrome%20new%20tab

Our extension is much like the old new tab page, but with various improvements:

- you can add any app, not just those in Chrome Web Store, including custom ones

- the launcher is automatically populated for you

- you can share the launcher with your colleagues

- the launcher config is synced to our server and we have a standalone service available as well as tab replacement addons for most other browsers

- we have deep links available, giving you shortcuts inside the web apps

- you can have multiple screens

We also have something really neat just around the corner, which you can see in this quick demo video: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/zy8xo0p086ydql8/starthq....

Finally, you can try it out without installing the extension here: https://starthq.com - we don't require you to verify your email to try it out.

Would really appreciate your feedback, thanks!

Does this provide the frequently visited websites view?

Not as such, but you can put that on our roadmap: http://starthq.uservoice.com

The launcher being populated automatically effectively does that though, it just doesn't keep it up to date yet.

Is my entire browsing history being sent to StartHQ?

Not at all.

All the logic is performed client-side, and the only thing that is sent back to StartHQ is your final launcher (so you can use the same launcher on other machines, including your phone / tablet).

Excellent, thanks.

Suggestions:

- Autofocus the url bar, if this is possible. Make the search field the first tab field (it's currently the second).

- Do a live fuzzy filtering of my webapps, not a submit-based search. This might work better if you had the list of results in a dropdown from the search box (think how Sublime shows its command pallette. If you don't know what that is, see the third animation at http://www.sublimetext.com/), instead of taking over the main body of the page.

- If I press Enter from the search box, open the top result that's currently showing.

These three changes allow for the workflow Ctrl-T, Tab if necessary, type fuzzy search for app name, press enter. Otherwise it's faster just to use the URL bar.

- You should show the URL of the shortcuts when editing the list of shortcuts, and preferably giving an option to turn on the domain on the main view.

EDIT:

- I would suggest making all my currently selected apps stored in localStorage, and using appCache for the page, if you're not already. If you want people to use this heavily, it'll need to load fast. The directory you can just load from a server, but I shouldn't have to wait for a response if I'm on a bad connection and I want to open a web app.

- Is there a way to load in your data without redirecting the New Tab page? Currently, the way you have it set up breaks the Ctrl-T, type-url flow that I use constantly, and I imagine many other people do too. I know it used to be possible to take over the new tab page without changing the url - did the update break this?

EDIT: changed the first suggestion.

Awesome suggestions! Adding them to our backlog as we speak. If it's not too much trouble, could you cross post them to http://starthq.uservoice.com so others can vote and comment. Also that way you'll get notified when we roll the updates out.

We are already using localStorage. Opted out of using AppCache after having it on for a while due to Firefox having a buggy implementation which made it impossible to invalidate the cache at times.

The last point is worrying, since it works for me. This may indeed be a regressioon caused by the Chrome update. Will investigate and be in touch.

Thanks for the response. I was half-expecting you were using localStorage, and I sympathize with your AppCache trouble. It's a pain when it does work, let alone when it doesn't.

One other idea I had, which I'm not sure if you guys are working on, is making the images able to autoupdate so you could have live-tile-like functionality (not necessarily the design, just the live info). Before the update, I used Currently, which gave me weather and time on the new tab page, which I really liked.

I'll see about posting that and my previous suggestions to uservoice.

We don't want to go too far down the Windows livze tiles path yet, but it would make sense further down the line.

Funnily enough, we made it possible to pin the site on Windows 8, so you can have it as a tile itself: http://www.iegallery.com/PinnedSites/Details/16114

old tab page:

go to: chrome://flags/#enable-instant-extended-api

change it to disabled.. relaunch chrome

I actually like the new start page, but I would love if there were an extension to remove the new "Apps" button from my bookmark bar. I never use apps and so it's just wasting bookmark bar real estate.

Luckily, it's fairly easy to remove. Just right-click the toolbar, and uncheck "Show apps shortcut".

You can also bookmark chrome://apps/ and place it in any position.

You can also add it your StartHQ launcher! :)

I just right clicked the bar and unchecked the 'Apps' button.

This is what I see when following the link on my iPad:

> Sorry, your operating system is not supported just yet. The Chrome Web Store is available on Windows (except RT), Mac and Linux. Why don't you send yourself a reminder to try it out later?

It would be nice if the Chrome store at least redirected to a relevant static info page even if I can't install the app. Same for the similar Apple App store links.

If you go to https://starthq.com/ext we redirect you to the right store based on your user agent, or https://starthq.com failing a match, where you can sign up and start using the launcher without the extension.

We actually made sure StartHQ works pretty well on the iPad - you can add it to the homescreen etc.

I crossposted this to the Reddit Chrome subreddit, in case anyone wants to follow the discussion there: http://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1ncyy2/starthq_chrom... - upvotes appreciated!

I have to say I really liked the magic of automatically filling the app launcher. I first nearly didn't notice, because it the apps seemed very obvious to me. It took me a minute to realize that this came from my browsing history and booksmarks. Good work!

That's funny, I was thinking about doing something like this just yesterday. Guess I'll continue working on my Game instead, someone has executed this idea pretty well.

Thanks for the kind words. Anything that you feel we're missing?

I would love for something like this to be open source. Where I can contribute and create a better launcher as a community. This is a great start. Would love to contribute more.

We want to open this up. Let's talk. Drop us a line via the feedback dialog in the dropdown menu when you sign up.

Is the new tab page only on a beta version of Chrome or something? I still see the old page and there are no updates available.

Interesting point. It seems like not everyone has it, but it is not connected to the version. I have the stable relase of chrome, but for me the standard app page is gone. have a look here at the Chromium blog: http://blog.chromium.org/2013/08/another-step-toward-faster-...

I have to stay that the daily alerts promoting StartHQ on Twitter are pretty annoying.

You mean the app such and such has been added to StartHQ tweets?

Useful service. Looks more simple than it is. :)

Glad someone sees and appreciates all the effort we put in :)

It is indeed a bit of an iceberg, in that there's a ton of stuff under the hood that users don't initially see. We've done a couple of talks on the tech - you can check them out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmyDJnEza6A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8KGguflMCc

Why am I expected to give up my email address?

I think its probably to enable the collaboration tools. I;m pretty sure you can still use it w/o giving up your email, just forgoing some of the collab features

Right, you're welcome to use a throwaway email using the likes of Mailinator. Just verify it using the link we send you so we know you're not a bot.

We store your launcher on our server so need an identifier for you to be able to open it up in another browser on another device.

Your email's domain will be used in the future to link you up with your colleagues, Yammer style.

We also want to let you know when we release new features, so they don't come as a surprise.

You can turn off all mails from us under Account/Email.

Did you investigate using the identity API?

http://developer.chrome.com/extensions/identity.html

No, but will do now. Thanks!

Does it show the bookmarks on top?

Not yet. What's your use case: do you browse them by folder or just want to search through them by keyword?

Chrome's new Tab page always have my bookmarks ready. All New Tab Replacement extensions do not show that or does away with my bookmarks. I want them too.

Great work Oleg.

Thanks Jacopo and nice to meet you! Couldn't have gotten even this far without Alex and Gabe though: https://starthq.com/about ... not to mention our awesome early adopter friends like Finn, Jaakko, Jesse and many others. You guys are all awesome!

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