{"id":1949,"date":"2012-06-18T20:28:31","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T19:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/t-machine.org\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2012-06-18T20:30:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-18T19:30:27","slug":"how-to-fix-firefoxs-stupid-new-tab-page-grid-of-random-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/2012\/06\/18\/how-to-fix-firefoxs-stupid-new-tab-page-grid-of-random-websites\/","title":{"rendered":"How to fix Firefox’s stupid “new tab” page grid of random websites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Firefox … ah, how we love watching you make terrible usability decisions, and then force them upon your users!<\/p>\n

FF now has this ridiculous page – WHICH YOU CANNOT DISABLE in Firefox settings:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fixing it<\/h4>\n

Since it’s not supported as an user-configurable option, you have to open the magic low-level settings page. Type this into your web browser, as if you were visiting a new website:<\/p>\n

\nabout:config\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ll get a list of settings, and a search bar. In the search bar, type:<\/p>\n

\nnewtabpage\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ll get something like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

…double-click the “browser.newtabpage.enabled” line until it says “false” in the final column. This will probably make it go bold:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

…et voila! You’re back to a normal web-browser. Like you’ve been used to, all these years…<\/p>\n

Why Firefox was stupid to add this “magic” page, in my opinion<\/h4>\n

For those that are interested, here’s why I’m scathing about this page:<\/p>\n

Most of all … because it actually breaks Firefox’s core feature (searching using Google).<\/p>\n

That’s just downright stupid. How come no-one noticed this? Why on earth did they ship something that breaks the core web-browser functionality? I have no idea. Google’s Chrome team must be delighted when stuff like this happens – it just drives more and more people to stop using Firefox.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. While this page is enabled, Google searches from the Search bar … hang every time for me\n
      \n
    • You have to hit the Search button twice – or wait several seconds before pressing it (the first click is accepted, but Firefox bugs mean it can’t actually load the page)\n
    • I’m guessing this is because the browser is unable to “load a new page” until the grid page has finished loading? Anything I do before the “grid tiles” have finished appearing gets ignored\n<\/ul>\n
    • Random webpages from your history are thrown up on screen\n
        \n
      • Have fun explaining to a new client why you have their competitor’s website open on your browser during a meeting\n
      • It’s pretty, but it’s not even useful. For most of us, when we open a new tab, chances are we’re about to visit Google. Firefox has spent 10+ years training people to do exactly this!\n<\/ul>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Firefox … ah, how we love watching you make terrible usability decisions, and then force them upon your users! FF now has this ridiculous page – WHICH YOU CANNOT DISABLE in Firefox settings: Fixing it Since it’s not supported as an user-configurable option, you have to open the magic low-level settings page. Type this into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/new.t-machine.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}