I tested extensions using the browser Supermium (portable version) which is based upon Chromium (Googla's Chrome). Many extensions are available for other browsers, so you can search for the same extensions for availability for you browser of choice.
The button page feature is commonly called a speed dial. The speed dial extensions provide a way to have a page of buttons that link to web pages. There is no dial, and there are no phone calls being made. A better name would have been link buttons or URL tiles.
My preferences are that I can get square tiles with rounded corners, customizable screen and tile backgrounds with solid coloar, display of the tiles starting from the top left, sizing of the tiles to my liking, and have some kind of grouping feature that allows switching to other screens of tiles. I tested many extensions. There are more, but the method of Googla's Chrome extension listing is infinite scroll with no indication of how many there are to be seen, and so at some point I did not want to continue. These little reviews below mostly describe deviations from my preferences and also any other annoyances.
boof (OP) double-posted this 1 month ago, 1 minute later[^][v]#1,451,282
I will begin with the extensions that I found more appealing than most.
Speed Dial 2 New tab --can't adjust the tiles squareness (stuck with rectangles) but the ratio can be played with a bit by adjusting some settings
Group Speed Dial --a couple of unneeded buttons at upper right, can't change default tile background color (have to do each tile separately), some features require a paid pro version
Easy Speed Dial --setting to show tiles as square still makes rectangles unless you also set Title Placement as attached, setting as icons makes squares though but with same icon for everything unless you set Show Favicons also but that does not work consistently, tiles are based upon use of bookmarks stored in your choice of bookmarks folder
boof (OP) double-posted this 1 month ago, 2 minutes later, 23 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,451,646
here are more little reviews of extensions that are better than most:
Yay! Another Speed dial! --tiles are centered horizontally instead of beginning at the left when
there is less than one line of tiles
Nice Speed Dials --tiles are centered vertically and there is no setting to start them at the top
of the page, can't change background coloar of tiles (get slightly darker coloar than page
background)
Omnipage: Speed Dial & Start Page --looks nice already but can't customize much, useless bar of
tiles for shit I don't want at the top, are permitted pageable sets of 40 tiles each
boof (OP) replied with this 1 month ago, 1 day later, 2 days after the original post[^][v]#1,452,039
here is another little review of an extension that is better than most.
Panda Speed Dial – New Tab --links are shown in groups of lists with favicons and titles and more pages of more groups of lists can be created but there is no way to display links as square tiles
boof (OP) double-posted this 1 month ago, 1 day later, 4 days after the original post[^][v]#1,452,197
why the hell isn't this thread on the bumps list? I had to do a search.
anyway, I now begin reviews of extensions that are down a notch or two on the personal appeal ranking.
yet another speed dial --can't change position of tiles from centered
Real Speed Dial --looks okay but can't customize much other than page background coloar,
based upon your choice of bookmark folder contents which you can add to within the new tab page,
tiles not positioned starting at the left but are indented quite a bit inward
Speed Dial (dove.hape.app) --based entirely upon whatever is in the bookmarks folder that you
choose upon first use, looks nice but can't customize anything, with few bookmarks the tiles are
not starting at the left but indented closer to the center
Speed Dial New tab (Initial condition s.r.o.) --this is very similar to Speed Dial 2 New tab, can't
adjust the tiles squareness (stuck with rectangles)
Metro Speed Dial - Modern New Tab page --tricky to achieve square tiles as the widths can only be
set with "minimum width" so that the tiles widen if there is space available, tiles are centered
vertically and there is no setting to start them at the top
Speed Dial (addonsearch.net) --can't set the background coloar (other than white or black), can't
adjust the tiles squareness (stuck with rectangles), tiles are supposed to have preview but no
boof (OP) double-posted this 1 month ago, 1 day later, 6 days after the original post[^][v]#1,452,428
Speed Dial Dogs --the same thing as Speed Dial (addonsearch.net) but with a dog pic
Simple Speed Dial --can't adjust the tiles squareness (stuck with rectangles), can't change
position of tiles from centered, can't change size of tiles
Speed Dial (Speed Dial Dev) --can't set the background coloar regardless of the feature apparently
there, can't set more than 10 tiles per row, tiles not able to be starting from left instead of
centered
boof (OP) triple-posted this 1 month ago, 1 day later, 1 week after the original post[^][v]#1,452,595
Speed Dial (Jorvi) --can't adjust the tiles squareness (stuck with rectangles), can't set the
background coloar, no tile groups, use is independent of new tab page
Speed dial 2.0 --shows a busy load of stuff on one page with no customizing available
Speed Dial 3 --tiles appear limited to occupy a grid on page, rows and columns can be inserted one
at a time which changes the size and shape of the grid rectangles, no coloar customization of any
kind, no tile groups
boof (OP) quadruple-posted this 4 weeks ago, 22 hours later, 1 week after the original post[^][v]#1,452,684
Speed Dial (Ravaga Apps) --can't set the background coloar (other than light or dark), can't adjust
the tiles squareness (stuck with rectangles) or size or background coloar or order
Minimalist Speed Dial - New Tab Shortcuts --can't set the background coloar (other than light or
dark), can't set number of tiles per row (get 7), can't set shape or size of tiles (get smallish
circles), no tile groups
TitleTab - Speed Dial Dashboard --can't set the background coloar , can't adjust the tiles
squareness (stuck with rectangles), can't set the number of columns of tiles or set to fill all
horizontal space given chosen size
boof (OP) quintuple-posted this 4 weeks ago, 1 day later, 1 week after the original post[^][v]#1,452,878
Speed Dial New Tab (ext1cwsak) --no customization for tiles or background or groups available at
all, only shows a few tiles based on history apparently
Bookmarks Speed Dial --based entirely upon whatever is in the bookmarks folder, can't customize
anything
next will come reviews of extensions that have a serious screwy problem
boof (OP) septuple-posted this 3 weeks ago, 22 hours later, 1 week after the original post[^][v]#1,453,544
Speed dial | Bookmark manager in a new tab with synchronization --nothing there upon installation
other than a page that looks like it needs more clicking to install something and that didn't work
Websktop Speed Dial ---nothing there upon installation other than a page that looks like it needs
more clicking to "sign up"
WebCatalog - Speed Dial New Tab --did nothing except ask to sign in to some stupid account