(Guide/Review) Tabliss is an elegant new tab replacement extension for Firefox and Chrome

[Karlston]

Tabliss is an elegant new tab replacement extension for Firefox and Chrome

Most new tab replacement add-ons are related speed-dials, bookmarks and the like. Tabliss however is all about elegance.

 

 

It is a new tab replacement extension for Firefox and Chrome, that displays cool backgrounds and useful widgets.

 

Install the add-on and open a new tab. It has a random wallpaper, which is not unlike Edge Chromium's Bing wallpaper of the day. The images are sourced from the Unsplash image service. In case you aren't familiar with it, the service offers images that are free for commercial/non-commercial use.

 

Tabliss displays a few links in the bottom left corner of the new tab. One that links to the current wallpaper's page on Unsplash (useful if you want to download the image), another for the uploader/photographer who uploaded the image, and the last URL links to the service's homepage.

 

 

The new tab also has a clock, and a message that reads "Hello". This is a fairly minimalistic new tab experience. You may customize the add-on, to do so mouse over the gear icon in the top left corner, and it displays a panel with three buttons.

 

The first button opens a side bar with various options. The drop-down menu allows you to select the background image source. You can choose from: a Gradient Color, Solid Color, GIPHY, Unsplash or Upload your custom photos.

 

 

Tabliss uses Unsplash by default, and is set to show a new photo every 15 minutes. You can use the dropdown menu to set the add-on to display a different wallpaper for every new tab, or change the picture once in 5 minutes, an hour or every day. If you like a picture and want to use it permanently, hit the pause option. The "display settings" allows you to customize the blur and luminosity levels of the images.

 

The second option in Tabliss' gear-icon panel, toggles the Widgets. Use it or the hotkey W to hide the clock and message. Head to the program's settings to add a new widget. There are many options to choose from such as "Custom CSS, Greeting, Literature Clock, Message, NBA Scores, Quick Links, Quotes, Search Box, Time, Todos, Weather". Each widget has its own settings.

 

 

Custom CSS allows you to use your own script. Greeting says Hello every time you open a new tab. Optionally write your name, to be greeted like Hello, John.

 

 

Literature Clock is rather unique, it quotes sentences (from random books), that tells you the current time. Message displays a custom text message of your choice.  NBA Scores shows the results from the latest games, and optionally the team logos.

 

Quick Links are like speed-dials. You can add links to any website you want, and use the corresponding number as the keyboard shortcut. Quotes places a random quote from "They Said So" and "Developer Excuses", it has some categories that you can select. The Search Box widget settings has various search provides you can choose from: Google, Baidou, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Ecosia, Lilo, StartPage, Yandex and Mail.Ru. Search Suggestions can be enabled for Google or Bing.

 

 

The Clock widget in Tabliss, Time, lets you  switch to Analogue, 12-hou or 24-hour digital mode. It can optionally display the seconds, minutes and the date.

 

Set reminders using the Todos widget. Select the number of tasks to be shown from the settings. Click on the + icon in the widget to add a new task. The O icon will display a check mark when you click on it, to indicate that the task has been completed.

 

Get weather updates in every new tab. Set the Location, Name of the place, toggle extended details (feels like, humidity, chance of rain), switch between Imperial and metric units. It uses Dark Sky's API. I'm not sure how long this will work, since Apple has acquired the service. Hopefully, Tabliss' developer will replace it when the API stops working.

 

 

Use the arrow icons on the side-panel to reorder the widgets, the delete button removes the widget. Adjust the position of the widget and its size, from the display settings. The Font settings allows you to change the font type, weight and the color. Tabliss has a full-screen mode too. You can test the add-on from the web demo available on the official website.

 

I was testing a similar add-on called Momentum, but was annoyed by the features locked behind the paywall, and looked for an alternative and came across Tabliss, which has no such issues. The add-on is open source and is a Mozilla Recommended Extension.

 

Download Tabliss for Chrome and Firefox.

 

 

Busy all day? Take a moment to appreciate a nice wallpaper, and use the widgets to get weather updates, reminders. The option to download the background is a huge plus.

 

Landing Page: https://tabliss.io/

 

 

Tabliss is an elegant new tab replacement extension for Firefox and Chrome