Let's Chat About the Firefox New Tab Page!

[akashm]

Hi everyone!

I’m Akash, a Product Manager who works on Firefox Desktop, and I’m excited to open a new thread of ideas with you all - the Firefox New Tab Page!

As we continue to build a modern & engaging browser, we’d love to hear from you on what you find important when choosing a browser. Let’s get started!

How can we improve the Firefox New Tab page so you have a more enjoyable experience?

I’d love to know…

• What do you enjoy about the current Firefox New Tab experience?
• What are the gaps that currently exist on the Firefox New Tab page that if fixed, would make it better for you? What do you wish you could do that you can’t do today?
• You don’t have Firefox New Tab set as your default homepage? Tell us why!
• What are your specific use cases when using the Firefox New Tab page?

Looking forward to hearing from you all, and welcome to Mozilla Connect!

[akashm]

Thanks for the detailed response @MintMain21 ! This is absolutely amazing 👏.

I'm looking forward to investigating this more! While I can't commit to any deliverable, this gives myself & the team a lot of insight into where to start!

I'll be sure to follow-up with more questions here (should they come up)!

Kudos again!

[FlamingDawn]

　　Hello Akash from Firefox! Thanks for asking about my opinion on the New Tab Page.

　　What I enjoy most about it is the simplicity and speed. A logo and a search bar coming out within 1 second -- that is the homepage I need.

　　Would consider using shortcuts if the icons can be replaced by LOCAL images. Some sites I frequently use have poor quality icons, and an online alternative isn't always easy to find, which ends up in my disabling the shortcuts. (Still I can easily access those sites by pressing Ctrl + B or typing few letters in the Address Bar.)

　　Usually I just start typing in Address Bar to search or open the Bookmark Menu like mentioned above, and go to a site I want. Wait, now I realize that I NEVER used a function on the New Tab Page despite it being my homepage🤣. So...I guess for me, it mainly works as a welcome page, ha.

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback @FlamingDawn !

I can definitely understand why getting the right favicon for shortcuts is helpful! How do you like the default icon for shortcuts?

[FlamingDawn]

Well, if a website has a high-resolution icon, its short cut icon would be perfect. But as shown in the screenshot, many sites only have tiny icons which are not beautiful in any sizes. So for me, the feature is barely unusable because I have high requirements when it comes to visuals.😂

Luckily, as I said before, Firefox offered many ways to open bookmark sites, so it wouldn't hurt if I just disable the shortcuts. Still I can use the bookmark button in toolbar.

[akashm]

Thanks for the clarification @FlamingDawn (the screenshot is very helpful)!

[Guest]

thoughts on the start page:

- on mobile, there's no way to see where each of the top sites goes. long pressing doesn't show the URL. and the titles sometimes get all out of sync somehow, so that's a problem

- developing the top sites section over time is like raising a tamagtochi. it's something you show off to anyone looking over your shoulder. turned off pocket? street cred for that. social media sites that your circles use? street cred. no embarrassing links? street cred.

- the width allowed for top sites titles is too narrow compared to typical page titles. it's just one of the weird things about the grid design

- I've always wondered how the "dismiss" option is implemented. does it remove it from your history so that it naturally is no longer a top site? does it make an additional record saying "ya I go there a lot but don't show it on the top sites?" does it reduce some kind of running average, such that it can show up again later if you continue to visit?

- I hardly ever use the search box, because opening a new tab focuses the address bar and I can already type there

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts @Guest!

I'll be sure to forward your feedback regarding the mobile top sites to the right team - thanks!

For Top Sites, do you use all four rows? How has the process been of adding top sites for you?

[Guest]

thanks akashm (:

I use two rows. do you use all four rows? that seems like a lot.

I haven't been manually adding sites. not really sure how I would either. so for now it's just whatever frequently visited sites

[KERR]

Linking my ideas here for reference:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/new-tab-home-page-improvements/idi-p/4165

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/show-page-titles-instead-of-domains-on-new-tab-page/idi-p/1116

Currently I only use New Tab Page to open a new tab. I don't use the shortcuts as they're misleading - this one says "facebook" but it's not a shortcut to facebook.com, it's a link to my for sale items page on facebook marketplace:

Some further thoughts:

- Since the icon labels for sites on the new tab page can be misleading (see my above link), I think showing thumbnails would be cool:

- Would be great to see info from about:protections like Brave does - like showing how many blocked trackers etc. This would really show-off Firefox's privacy angle!

- How about a bookmarks menu/folders? I usually set the bookmark bar to only turn on for a new tab so having them on the new tab page would be handy

- An RSS feed or just a notification at the bottom about Firefox news - a great way to advertise stuff like VPN or even just Did You Knows. How about advertising the new Firefox Translations addon

- Some customisation would be handy, I wouldn't mind widgets like a calendar/weather/calculator

- Perhaps it could show things like "open tabs you haven't looked at in ages"

- Recent notifications: I think this is being worked on, but perhaps a place to view recent notifications as well

Hope this is helpful! Cheers

[akashm]

Thanks for your feedback @KERR , this is definitely helpful!

We're always looking to create experiences that improve your Firefox experience. This is a great place for us to begin explorations, so thanks!

A follow-up: when using the New Tab page, how important is it to you that the New Tab page is minimalistic?

[lolrepeatlol]

This is awesome -- I really appreciate that you're asking the Firefox community about what they want in their browser.

I feel like what the new tab page is missing is wallpapers. On Chrome or Edge, I can add a nice nature background, which is something I find really calming. Starting a new tab page without a wallpaper just feels empty, and when I'm trying to get work done, something nice in the background is always appreciated. It's not a huge deal but it's certainly something I do really miss from Chrome.

On that note, I find that Firefox Android's implementation of wallpapers is pretty lackluster as well. Text is rather hard to read with a wallpaper applied and things feel messy. Worse yet, a colorful Firefox logo is overlayed against a colorful background, which just looks bad. Contrast that to Chrome where there is generally a background behind text with a wallpaper, and a monochrome logo, and the feature just feels a lot more polished. I ask that an implementation of wallpapers to Firefox on desktop be more polished than on Android. 🙃

[Kyeithel]

I totally agree. I miss the option to use custom background images.

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback, @lolrepeatlol !

This is helpful and echoes what many others have mentioned! While I can't promise any deliverables at this moment, I'm happy to use your feedback as a starting place for future explorations.

A followup: Hypothetically, how often would you want to change between wallpapers? With other browsers/extensions, do you find yourself changing wallpapers often?

[lolrepeatlol]

Apologies for the late reply!

I probably change wallpapers about every two weeks to a month. I like to keep things fresh, but also like to take my time to find a wallpaper that I find nice and suits my style.

So, not too often, but every now and then.

Thanks for asking!

[vincentj]

The current page is mostly fine, except that handing off the search box to the URL bar is a giant security risk and should be reverted to the previous behavior.  I have experienced the same issue as this commenter, where I intend to search for a potentially malicious URL or IP address, but the search is redirected to the URL bar and it navigates to the malicious site instead of performing a search.  The ambiguous behavior is incredibly frustrating.

I know there is an about:config setting to disable handoffToAwesomebar, but it does not work in private windows.  So either the search box provides different results depending on the query, or it behaves differently in regular and private windows when you try to fix it.

Besides the security risk, redirecting where you're entering text to a different part of the screen is a weird behavior and a bad user experience.  Many people have complained about this and there's a huge thread of people looking to disable this feature.

The search box should act as a normal search box.

[steel835]

You can click "this time search with" to search a URL instead of visiting. I can also suggest using VirusTotal for checking potentially malicious links - you can also add it as a search engine and get used to this option.

Having said that, I agree that the case for ambiguity exists - the address bar already can show 2 options for ambiguous queries - visiting and searching, but it doesn't always show it, so if you don't pay extra attention, you can fall in this trap. I think, I've seen an idea about this here

[vincentj]

I do know about "this time search with" but it's an extra step that you only need sometimes.  If you happen to search for something with a dot in the wrong place, then you need to perform different actions to get search results.  It's too easy to mess up.

Looks like there are actually several ideas/discussions about this topic:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/re-search-or-enter-address-bar/idi-p/2308

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/search-on-new-tabs-uses-search-box/idi-p/4778

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/please-use-the-searchbox-but-not-the-address-bar-in-new-tabs/id...

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/you-have-a-new-glitch-on-the-new-tab-page/idi-p/1372

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/i-can-t-use-the-address-bar-for-complicated-google-search...

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/start-page-and-it-s-issues/m-p/2169

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/typing-in-the-search-bar-should-stay-in-the-seach-bar-rat...

Man, this site really needs better moderation/curation to merge all the duplicates.

[Jon]

Thanks for flagging these for us, @vincentj! This type of community effort really helps us identify any duplicates as well as anything that may be against the community guidelines. We'll take a look and get these merged 😃

[akashm]

Thanks for your feedback, @vincentj !

I can definitely understand where you're coming from! I'm happy to look into this and take your feedback back to the team.

[bwat47]

Make it easier for users to configure it to *only* show manually pinned pages in top sites

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback @bwat47 !

Your feedback echoes what others have also mentioned - as a followup, I'm curious to know how many rows of top sites you use? Do you like to add as many top sites as possible?

[Kyeithel]

I really miss one thing: custom background image. I changed from edge, and I really loved the custom image function.

Other than that, I like the current state. I dont like when its bloated with things (crypto prices, weather, news, articles,bookmarks etc. I always turn them off in other browsers).

[akashm]

Thanks for your feedback @Kyeithel !

As a follow-up, how often would you want to change between wallpapers? With other browsers/extensions, did you find yourself changing wallpapers often?

[plwt]

I find the current New Tab experience useful as a good way to get to common sites fast.  Sure I have bookmarks saved, but the new tab is for "daily driver" content.

What would make it better:

Being able to add more shortcuts.  I am using the 8 by 4, but feel that the gaps down the side of the page could be used for more.

Being able to theme the background.  As a theme designer, I know I can change the colour, but it would be so good to put a background image there.

Have some way to sync top sites with Firefox for Android.  If the number of top sites could be leveled out (32 max on desktop, 16 max on Firefox for Android) and the Pocket recommended stories availability was the same (Pocket in Firefox for Android is not available outside of the US) - this could create a more seamless experience between the two.

[akashm]

Thank you for the detailed feedback @plwt !

Your feedback is very helpful and echoes what many others have also mentioned, so thanks for sharing!

When it comes to shortcuts/top sites: do you find yourself manually changing/editing every single top site?

For background wallpapers: how important is customization to you when using wallpapers? With other browsers/extensions, do you enjoy having many options about the 'genre' of wallpaper?

[plwt]

Thank you for hosting!

I do not change top sites too often, but when I do, I identify a site that I no longer need and edit the URL and name (and maybe drag it to a new position).

I do not use any add-ons or hacks to set a new tab background, but being able to set it to my own image would be good, such as my desktop wallpaper so the browser appears more minimal.  Being able to have it included in a Fx theme downloaded from AMO would be awesome.  I am a theme artist and while I can set the new tab colour as part of a theme, I cannot set an image in place there (at least not easily).

I hope that this helps.

[aloerobotics]

I'm a bit late to this, but I'd love some more customization! Being able to set a background feels like a simple thing but it took me a lot of messing about in userContent.css to do it without downloading an extension.

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback, @aloerobotics ! Apologies for the delay in my response here!

Your feedback echoes what others have mentioned! For background wallpapers, how important is customization to you when using wallpapers? With other browsers/extensions, do you enjoy having many options about the 'genre' of wallpaper?

[KERR]

How about making the other search engines more discoverable on the new tab page? Eg amazon/ebay/wikipedia? I use these all the time in the address bar:

They're great as you don't have to load the ebay/amazon/wiki page first (and get distracted) before searching. I'm not sure how many people know they exist though?

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback, @KERR !

Do you use those direct-search queries often?

[ansiklopedici]

Customizable search engine shortcuts in the new tab would be nice.

(Like @amazon search shortcut)

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback @ansiklopedici , this is an interesting idea!

[argentite]

I think "Container Tabs"/"Firefox Containers" integration for the shortcuts would be nice. For example, I have 3 Gmail accounts in 3 separate containers. I would like to have different Gmail shortcuts for each of those containers. These could be distinguished by a border color or icon in the corner etc. Currently I have to right click the same shortcut and select the container from a sub-menu within the context menu.

[Jon]

Hey all,

Love seeing so many great, detailed responses—keep them coming!

Just a quick heads up, Akash is out of the office for a couple days but will be back at it later this week and ready to continue the conversation on how we can improve the Firefox New Tab page.

In the meantime, excited to see more of your feedback 🙌

[KYKZ]

You have a very large Search Bar at the center but cannot input anything on it, just the flashing Input Cursor.😑 I hated Chrome for that.

[akashm]

Thanks for the feedback @KYKZ !

I'll be sure to pass this feedback to the relevant teams. Thanks!

[pg_78]

---

You don’t have Firefox New Tab set as your default homepage? Tell us why!

about:blank for me (well, these days it's just called "Blank Page" in the Settings menu).

I very much do not want to be shown "recent tabs", "most visited sites" etc, because those lead me into bad habits of repetitively visiting the same pages.  On Firefox for Android, it has not been straightforward enough to get to a completely blank page (though it can be done): so my ask for Desktop would just be that you retain the easy and clear "Blank Page" option on the Settings screen.

[akashm]

Thanks for your feedback @pg_78!

[crooked_windows]

Be nice to see coloured tabs for the most popular ones opened, eg. if you have 34 ebay and 23 teksyndicate but only 1 or 2 odd one then the 2 big ones can get yellow and lime tint to them. If you right click on Teksyndicate for example and select a tint, all the other tabs automatically get done if shift is held down too. Nothing crazy just a pale highlight using subtle colours

[maryb]

I'd love to be able to change the default "search with Google" to another browser. How can I do this without having to click on the preferred one each time?