Blank New Tab
Use a blank page as your new tab page.
- By:
- xofe
- Rating:
- 4.78 (36)
- Version:
- 2.1.0 (Last updated: 2023-04-15)
- Version code:
- 5553521
- Creation date:
- 2015-08-28
- Size:
- 7.94K
- Full description:
- See detailed description
- Source:
- Firefox Browser Add-ons
- Updated:
- 13 hours ago
Manifest V2 Overrides new tab
User reviews
The 'Blank New Tab' Firefox add-on is praised for its simplicity and privacy benefits by replacing the default new tab page with a blank page. It works reliably with minimal permissions and supports improved user workflows like mouse gestures. However, some users report brief flickering, lack of cursor focus on new tabs, and no support for custom colors, limiting its flexibility. Despite these minor drawbacks, the extension is appreciated for effectively providing a clean and distraction-free new tab experience.
Pros
- Replaces the default new tab page with a blank 'about:blank' page, providing simplicity and reducing clutter.
- Improves privacy by removing history and frequently visited site thumbnails from the new tab page.
- Works well without requiring unnecessary permissions and has minimal impact on Firefox performance.
- Allows compatibility with other extensions (like mouse gestures) that rely on a blank new tab.
- Enables faster startup by preventing loading tabs into RAM at launch when Firefox is configured to restore previous session tabs.
Cons
- Some users experience a brief flicker or flash in the address bar when opening a new tab.
- Does not automatically focus the cursor in the URL bar on new tabs in some Firefox versions, requiring an extra step to start typing.
- Does not override the new tab page when opening a new window, due to Firefox limitations.
- Users wanting a dark or customized blank new tab color cannot achieve this directly with the add-on.
- Minor issues with framebuffer or rendering glitches reported on specific systems.
Recent reviews
by 远离中共邪教快退出党团队, 2025-03-23
by 退出中共邪教党团队保命, 2025-02-24
It can still be useful to have this add-on using Firefox 61+. Recent versions of Firefox have the about:newtab page as new tab. With this add-on it is replaced by about:blank. This allows me to work with mouse gestures on new tabs (using Gesturefy add-on). Thanks!
by flo, 2023-07-20
Extension safety
Risk impact
Blank New Tab requires very minimum permissions.
Risk impact analysis details
- Medium Can alter new tab settings; fairly benign but with some capability to affect user experience.
Risk likelihood
Blank New Tab has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.
Risk likelihood analysis details
- High This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.
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