Core Extension Functionality
Dynamic Backdrops
An interactive background system featuring active time-of-day gradients, curated high-res photography, or your own local custom uploads.
Hybrid Clock Widget
Digital precision meets minimal analog geometry. Toggle digital layout, customize timezones, formats, or hide seconds in a click.
Customizable Search
Search seamlessly using Chrome's native Search API. Toggle suggestions, customize placeholder text, resize search box width, or open in new tabs.
Tabbed Notes
Capture thoughts with checklist indicators, real-time tab task counters (All Done alerts), and customizable sidebar widths.
Mini-Guide: Configuring Your Settings
Achkoune New Tab gives you fine-grained control over every aspect of your dashboard. Click the gear icon in the corner to access the following sections:
- 🌤️ Weather Configuration Toggle weather info, select Celsius/Fahrenheit units, and use location search. If geolocation is blocked or disabled, enter coordinates manually for a private resolve.
- ⏰ Clock & Date Select digital or analog styling. Configure 12/24 hour display, choose whether to show seconds, specify a custom timezone, and customize the date structure.
- 💬 Greeting Settings Enable a warm greetings header. Enter your name to receive custom, contextual messages that change naturally depending on the time of day.
- 🔍 Centered Search Activate a minimal search bar in the middle of your screen. Set to "Browser Default" (uses the native Chrome Search API to query your browser's preferred provider) or manually override it to Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, or Yandex. Adjust search bar width, toggle autocomplete suggestions, input a custom placeholder, and choose if results load in a new tab.
- 🔗 Links & Tile Grid Customize the tile launcher sizing (small to x-large), shape layouts (rounded or standard), grid column count, and vertical spacing. Import custom bookmark folders directly.
- 📝 Notes Widget Configure notes alignment, panel width, transparency, and background glassmorphism blur. Tab badge task counts dynamically display unchecked checklist tasks.
- 🖼️ Background Customization Switch between shifting Aurora gradients, high-res Unsplash/Pexels photos, or upload a custom local image. Custom background uploads are compressed to WebP/JPEG to guarantee page speed.
- ⚙️ Advanced Controls Export your full settings profile into a JSON file, import settings to another device, scale all elements (50% to 150%), or perform a complete factory reset.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Achkoune New Tab?
It is a lightweight browser extension that replaces the default blank page with a beautiful, productive, and custom dashboard featuring weather, notes, clock, and quick-launch links.
2. Is my data tracked or sent to remote servers?
Absolutely not. Your privacy is our highest priority. All your notes, quick-launch links, custom backgrounds, and settings are stored locally on your own machine. We do not use remote analytics or server-side databases.
3. How do I upload a custom background photo?
Open settings, navigate to the Background section, and click the Custom mode button. Click the upload button to choose any image from your computer. It will automatically compress to load instantly.
4. Does the extension support custom search engines?
Yes, you can toggle the search bar widget under Settings -> Search. You can set it to the default browser engine (respecting your browser settings) or select Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, Brave, or Yandex. You can also toggle search suggestions, adjust the search box width, customize the placeholder, and configure it to open results in a new tab.
5. How do notes tab checklist badges work?
When you write checklist tasks using markdown format (e.g., `- [ ] item` or completed `- [x] item`), the notes tab pill automatically computes the remaining items and updates the title. When all items are checked, it displays `(All Done)`.
6. Where does the weather forecast information come from?
Weather information is retrieved directly from Open-Meteo, a non-tracking, open-source API that provides meteorological data without collecting any personal identifier coordinates. The extension requests HTML5 geolocation to set the coordinate parameters automatically.
7. Can I export settings to another computer?
Yes. Go to Settings -> Advanced, click Export Settings, and save the JSON file. On your other computer, click Import Settings to load your configuration.
8. How do I add or rename note sheets?
Click the `+` button in the notes tabs bar to create a new sheet. To rename any sheet, double-click its tab title span in the header and fill in the popup prompt.
9. Why did my custom background photo get compressed?
Large images (e.g., 10MB phone snapshots) slow down browser start-up and new tab load times. The extension scales uploads down to standard screen resolution and compresses them to keep your new tabs loading in under 50ms.
10. How do I import my bookmarks?
Under Settings -> Links, you will find folder importing tools that allow you to import all bookmarks from any of your native browser folders into your active tiles launcher group.
Privacy Policy
Last Updated: August 2026
We respect your right to privacy. The Achkoune New Tab extension operates as a private, local-first utility. Here is what that means:
1. No Data Collection
We do not collect, capture, sell, or transmit any browsing history, typed notes, custom shortcuts, coordinates, or system information to remote databases. All user settings, configurations, and notes stay exclusively on your local device.
2. Local Storage API
Your settings profile and notes content reside on your device inside Google Chrome local sandbox storage (`chrome.storage.local`). This data is never synced to external servers unless you manually download a backup configuration.
3. Native Search Respect
If you choose to use the search bar, the extension queries the native Chrome Search API (`chrome.search.query`) by default. This ensures that searches respect your browser's active settings and default search provider. Your search terms are not captured, intercepted, or redirected to third-party endpoints by this extension.
4. Permissions Declarations
The extension requires the following permissions to operate. Every permission has a strictly defined, user-beneficial function:
| Permission | Type | Justification |
|---|---|---|
| storage | API Permission | Saves user preferences (active theme, layout options, weather units) and custom quick-launch tiles locally on the browser. |
| favicon | API Permission | Retrieves website favicons to display custom bookmark shortcuts inside your quick-launch tiles. |
| bookmarks | API Permission | Allows the user to easily import their browser bookmarks directly into the quick-launch grid. |
| search | API Permission | Initiates web searches directly from the custom search bar in the new tab page using the user's preferred browser search provider. |
| geolocation | API Permission | Queries the HTML5 Geolocation API to auto-detect the user's geographic coordinates for local weather reporting (if location permission is granted). |
5. External Host Connections
The extension resolves location names and weather forecasts using the Open-Meteo geocoding API, which requires no API key and does not log user information. Telemetry fallbacks for favicons are queried strictly from Google Favicon or DuckDuckGo cache utilities.
Terms of Use
Last Updated: August 2026
By installing and using the Achkoune New Tab extension, you agree to the following terms:
1. License Grant: You are granted a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use the extension on personal and professional devices.
2. Local Operation: The software is provided "as is". Since all database storage is entirely offline and local, we are not responsible for any local data loss resulting from browser clearing, device damage, or extension uninstallation.
3. Use Restrictions: You agree not to decompile, reverse-engineer, or commercially repackage the codebase without permission from Jalal Achkoune.