BetterHomepage — Changelog



UI Improvements

• Refined Hero section with smaller title, better clock visibility, stronger blur, and cleaner spacing
• Improved Background Manager with subtle wallpaper blur and stronger readability overlay
• Rebuilt Widget Hub into a cleaner weather-focused floating panel
• Upgraded Google Services launcher with more shortcuts and better app launcher UI
• Improved onboarding flow with guided homepage setup and clearer Firefox instructions

Search System Upgrade

• Rebuilt Search Bar into a smarter command-based search system
• Added quick commands like yt, wiki, map, gh, gm, calc, notes, and todo
• Added categorized Advanced Search (Google Dorks) with cleaner column layout
• Removed keyboard shortcut dependency and search history clutter
• Improved engine selector UI with descriptions and better scaling

Search Architecture Improvements

• Expanded search engines with GitHub, Reddit, Stack Overflow, Maps, and Gemini
• Improved input parsing for URLs, IPs, localhost, commands, and protocol handling
• Upgraded Search Brain with smarter routing for CVEs, emails, usernames, IPs, and commands
• Added better OSINT-style lookup behavior and cleaner fallback search logic

Firefox Extension Release Fixes

• Fixed manifest validation issues for Firefox Add-ons
• Added correct browser_specific_settings and data_collection_permissions
• Fixed AMO extension ID mismatch and versioning issues
• Finalized Bun + Arch Linux + web-ext packaging workflow
• Prepared clean release build for Firefox Add-ons submission

Final Result

BetterHomepage is now a much stronger premium productivity homepage with:

• smarter search
• cleaner UI
• better onboarding
• polished widgets
• stronger Firefox extension support

Release Version

v1.20.0

BetterHomepage — UI & Widget Update

Summary

This release focuses on visual consistency, interaction quality, and cleanup of the clock, weather, and control widgets.
The widget system now behaves as a unified, minimal UI instead of separate components.



Changes

Clock Widget

• Removed 12H / 24H label clutter
• Minute-aligned updates (no drift)
• Subtle pulse on minute change
• Improved accessibility and keyboard support
• Cleaner typography with tabular numerals
• Unified compact and normal styles

Weather Widget

• IP-based location detection on first load
• Persistent city selection
• Detailed hover info (temperature, wind, direction, location)
• Refresh every 30 minutes
• Subtle glow on update
• Safer error handling

Widget Panel

• Column-based layout
• Equal spacing and alignment
• Tighter gaps and reduced visual noise
• Cleaner dividers with synced pulse
• Persistent toggle states

UI / Styling

• Reduced excessive transparency
• Unified blur, borders, and shadows
• Consistent hover and active feedback
• Respects reduced-motion preferences
• Removed experimental visual bloat

Fixes

• Fixed invisible weather modal
• Fixed undefined handlers
• Corrected spacing and alignment issues
• Stabilized minute pulse timing
• Reduced unnecessary re-renders

Whats New 🔥:
• Brand new customizable New Tab experience
• Dynamic greeting based on time of day
• Smart search bar with multiple engines and URL detection
• Built-in advanced search operators (dorking shortcuts)
• Live weather widget with location control
• Compact clock widget with 12h / 24h toggle
• Editable pinned shortcuts with local storage
• Background manager with blur, random images, and uploads
• First-run onboarding for homepage setup
• Clean, minimal UI optimized for focus

Multiple Issues are fixed -
1. better UX on widgets
2. better USER welcome messages
3. better searchBox