MonoStart replaces Chrome's empty new-tab page with a dashboard you actually use. We open a new tab dozens of times a day and are met with a blank screen — MonoStart turns that moment into a personal launchpad where your links, tasks, notes, and reminders all live, arranged exactly how you like them.
Technical Scope & Contributions
- A dashboard you arrange: Designed a drag-and-drop grid where every widget — links, grouped folders, notes, to-dos, timers, reminders, images, embeds, and search — can be placed and resized to fit the way you work.
- Everything one glance away: Quick links and tidy groups replace digging through bookmarks; notes, tasks, and reminders live right on the page you already open all day.
- Make it yours: 12 color themes, a custom-color picker, light/dark, and color, gradient, or image wallpapers — so the page feels personal, not generic.
- Stay on track: Built-in timers and reminders nudge you at the right moment, without reaching for another app.
- Fast and private by design: A Manifest V3 Chrome extension that runs entirely on your device — no account, no servers, no tracking — and is built to open instantly every time.
Business Impact
The new-tab page is the most-opened screen in the entire browser, yet for most people it does nothing. MonoStart reclaims that wasted moment and turns it into a productivity boost — a calm, personal home base that keeps what matters a glance away instead of scattered across bookmarks, sticky notes, and half a dozen apps. The guiding idea was simple: the page you open dozens of times a day should feel instant, be entirely yours to shape, and stay private by default. By pulling links, tasks, notes, and reminders into one place, it cuts the constant context-switching that quietly drains focus — so your day starts on a screen built around you: fewer clicks, less hunting, more done.