Google Now is a new concept from Google that’s about getting the right information at the right time. This means having the weather when you wake up in the morning, getting flight information before you arrive at the airport or having directions to your next appointment before you leave. You can bring the Google Now look and feel to your new tab page in Chrome with a new unofficial extension in the Chrome Web Store. This extension changes your new tab page to look like Google Now and eventually may even interact with you the way Google Now does.
Getting the Google Now feature is only an install away. After the install, the new tab page will open with the Google Now look.
Google Search and Google Now banner
The first thing you can do with New Tab Page is utilize Google search. You can search the old-fashioned way by typing in a query or using voice search. Your results will be displayed in the same tab in the usual way you see Google search results.
New Tab Page’s banner representing Google Now actually changes with the time. So, at night, it will be black and during the day it will be blue which is a nifty little feature based on your OS’ current time.
Most recent pages
Below the Google search box, you will see a list of your most recently opened pages in Chrome for the day.
This changes daily and is based on how long you have spent at a given site. Depending on the site or service, you will see its link, its favicon and a preview of what you spent the most time visiting that day. You can click on any of the sites to load and open it in the same tab.
News
News will display the latest headlines from Google News.
If you click “More News,” Google News will open for you to see what is going on during the day. At the moment, there is no way to localize the news or change any settings related to it.
Weather
Weather will display the local weather for your area once you set the location.
You will set your location right after you install the extension, and if you want to change it, you will need to uninstall the extension and then reinstall it. Clicking on a day of the week will open that day’s weather details.
Apps
Remember when you opened your boring old new tab page and your Chrome apps were listed for you to use? This is the same thing except in a neat little box.
Just click the app you want access to, and your app will open in a new tab ready for you to use.
Conclusion
New Tab Page for Google Chrome is a beautiful way to display your new tab page by utilizing the Good Now look and feel, though the extension needs some work. Being able to set your news and weather would be a major step forward in its development. You can also suggest new features or changes to New Tab Page, but let us know first in the comment below what you’d like to see.
