How We Supercharged BoTab's Automatic Icons

When you open a new tab, the little icons you see are more than decoration—they are your landmarks. A familiar picture helps you spot the site you want at a glance. Yet the real world is messy: some sites never share an icon, some only offer a blurry stamp, and others leave their logo floating in a sea of empty space. We spent months tuning BoTab so those rough edges no longer show up on your dashboard.

Find every icon before polishing

In the past, BoTab sometimes gave up and showed a gray placeholder. That meant we simply had not found a logo yet. Now we search in layers:

1. We start with the homepage, where most sites keep their icon.
2. If nothing is listed, we try the common hiding spots, the file names people often use for icons.
3. Still nothing? We knock on the front door of the main site, in case the address you opened was a smaller sub-site that forgot to share its logo.
4. As a last resort we visit a trusted public icon library so you are never left with an empty square.

It sounds like casting a wide net, but the result is simple: far more sites now show up with their own symbol. You do not have to think about the steps behind the curtain—you just notice that the grid feels tidy.

Picking the best face, not the first one

Different sites hand out icons of wildly different sizes. Some are postage stamps, others are giant posters. We added a fitting room: every candidate gets measured, and the clearer option goes to the front. If you request a larger size, we keep searching until we find one that matches your wish.

That means BoTab now presents icons that look crisp instead of fuzzy or stretched. Your start page turns into a mini gallery where each tile carries the right brand personality.

Adding breathing room automatically

Even when the right icon is in hand, it can look off. Round corners might get chopped, or a logo hugs the frame awkwardly. The trouble often comes from invisible space around the art. We taught BoTab to glance at the four corners of each icon. When it senses transparent edges, it steps back and adds a cushion so the design can breathe inside the square card.

The outcome feels subtle yet noticeable: icons sit centered, balanced, and whole.

Remember once, load faster next time

A smooth experience is not only about looks—it is also about speed. Most sites rarely change their icons, so once BoTab prepares one, we keep the result handy. The next time you visit the same site, the icon appears instantly without redoing the work from scratch.

A calm safety net

Of course, a handful of sites truly have no icon at all. Instead of leaving a broken blank, we show a friendly fallback badge. It uses the first letter of the site’s name and clearly marks that it is our backup. It may not be as distinctive as the real thing, but it keeps your collection orderly and assures you that BoTab tried every option.

Why these details matter

This upgrade reminded us that polish is a sum of tiny decisions. You might never list every step we took, but you will feel the difference:

• New links no longer show awkward gray placeholders.
• Icons look sharp, centered, and true to the original brand.
• Pages load with an easy flow because we do less repeat work.
• Even the rare sites without logos still blend in neatly.

We want opening BoTab to feel like leafing through a thoughtfully designed magazine—every page inviting, every detail cared for. This is only the first chapter. Next we will keep refining colors, backgrounds, and subtle motion so your new tab stays delightful. If you have ideas about icons, we would love to hear them.

Here’s to every click beginning with an icon that feels familiar and polished.