Sometimes the best article you read is the one you weren't looking for.
You open a new tab to look something up. A headline catches your eye. You take a quick look, save it for later, and go back to what you were doing.
I've always liked that idea behind daily.dev's browser extension. I had it set as my default new-tab page, and the idea stayed with me: discovering something interesting shouldn't always require a deliberate visit to a website.
I wanted that moment with DEV.to.
When I wanted to see what was happening here, I'd open DEV and check the feed. That's a small step, but it means I have to remember to do it. A new tab is already part of my day.
So I built DEV New Tab, an unofficial Chrome extension that puts the DEV community there.
A DEV feed where you already are
Open a new tab and you can browse DEV articles, see who's writing them, and find something worth opening.
The extension has For you, Following, Latest, Top, and Curated feeds. You can use a grid or a list, switch themes, add your own shortcuts, and keep useful articles close with bookmarks or local saves.
Clicking a card opens a preview. The original article is always one click away on DEV, along with its comments and the author's profile.
That was the experience I wanted: a post gets a chance to catch my attention before I start typing another URL.
Hacktoberfest gave me another idea
While building this, Hacktoberfest got me thinking about what else I could try. Google's built-in AI APIs in Chrome were especially interesting.
Could the browser itself help me decide whether a long article was worth opening?
I used Chrome's local Prompt API to generate a short overview from the public article text. On supported setups, the model runs on your device. You don't need to add an AI API key, and the extension doesn't send the article to a publisher-operated AI server.
Browser, hardware, and language support vary. If local AI isn't available, you can still browse the feed and open the original articles.
The overview is there to help you get your bearings. It's AI-generated, so the original is still the place to check the details.
You can prepare a few visible articles ahead of time, wait until you open one, or opt into preparing all the articles already loaded in the feed. Cached overviews are reused. Opening and closing a preview doesn't restart a job that's already running.
Some of the fiddly work was around that last part. A summary finishing shouldn't move neighboring cards around. An author bio arriving shouldn't push the sharing buttons down. Those little things matter when this is a page you'll open repeatedly.
Share the part that caught your attention
I also wanted an easy way to share a useful passage.
Select part of an overview and a small toolbar appears. You can copy just the text, copy it with the article's source, or save it as a snapshot card.
The snapshots include the article title, author, and source link, with readable highlighted text in DEV-inspired colors. You can export the full overview from the menu too.
I want the author and original post to stay attached to the thing being shared. If a passage makes someone curious, they should be able to find the article behind it.
Your existing DEV login is enough
There's no separate extension account or login flow.
If you're already signed into DEV.to in the same browser profile, the extension uses that session for personalized feeds, your DEV reading list, and reactions. Comments stay on the original DEV article.
Without a DEV login, public discovery still works. You can browse public feeds, open articles, use local saves, and use the supported local preview features. Account-backed actions need your DEV session.
I'd love for you to try it
This started with a pretty ordinary wish: I wanted to come across more DEV articles without having to remember to open the site first.
Now there's an extension you can try:
Use it for a bit and tell me what you'd change. Which feed would you keep open? Is there something you wish a DEV new-tab page could do? If you find a bug, leave a comment with what happened.
If it gets real traction, I'd like to open-source it and work on the next version with the community.
I'd be happy if an article someone might otherwise miss gets another reader, or a quick new-tab visit turns into a good discussion here on DEV.
I hope you like it. I'd love to hear what you think.
DEV New Tab is an independent community project, not an official DEV product.
Top comments (7)
I like this just like daily.dev, and the fact that creating a new tab is constant when it comes to our line of work, this is something that automatically adds more traction to dev.to.
Thanks Elmar.
I think so too. Out of all projects I did for Dev across last 2 years, this one seems the best :)
benefiting everyone :)
Nice build. Putting discovery where you already are makes a lot of sense, and the fiddly layout work you described is the part that decides whether a new-tab page feels calm.
The AI overview reminded me of a paper I read this week, "Retrieved but Not Read" (arXiv 2610.21731). The authors found that search-assisted models often answer from the short result snippets without opening the page, and the snippet-only answers were out of date about five times as often (6.4% against 1.3% when the model opened and cited the page). Your design already leans the right way: the overview is labelled as AI and the original is one click away.
I'm curious whether you've seen people read the overview and skip the article. Could the overview point at the one part of the post that's worth opening it for?
The part I appreciated most is the one you called fiddly: summaries landing without shifting neighbouring cards. That’s the kind of detail that decides whether a new-tab page feels calm or twitchy when you open it 50 times a day. How did you handle it when the overview length isn’t known up front? Fixed-height preview with internal scroll, or reserving a skeleton and clamping?
This is such a nice example of solving a small personal problem in a really thoughtful way. I especially like the idea of putting DEV where you already spend time instead of expecting people to remember to visit another site.
The attention to the little UX details also stood out to me. Things like keeping cards from jumping around while summaries load seem minor, but they make a huge difference when you use something every day.
And the local AI approach is interesting too. I like that the summary is treated as a way to decide whether something is worth reading, rather than trying to replace the original article.
Really cool project — it feels practical without being overcomplicated. 👏
Such a clean explanation of a nuanced problem. Bookmarking this for reference, thanks for sharing!
thanks. try the extension and let me know :)
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