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A comment on Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web into a walled garden. Parent comment

Re:Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web i... by theHIDninja on Sunday October 24, 2021 @01:32PM (#28980111)
I used to be able to set the New Tab Page to an arbitrary URL. Now I have to use a browser extension to do that. Moreover, it used to be possible to have that point to an HTML file that was stored locally, which they have disabled from even allowing browser extensions to point to. I used to have a really cool new tab page that I hand wrote with custom CSS and everything. Firefox killed that overnight.

Here's an article about the ads in the new tab page: https://www.neowin.net/news/firefox-640-is-now-showing-a-boo...

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Re:Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web i... by cpeterso on Sunday October 24, 2021 @02:38PM (#28980717)
You don’t need a browser extension to change Firefox’s home page. There is a UI setting to specify an arbitrary URL:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-set-the-home-pag...

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Re:Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web i... by theHIDninja on Sunday October 24, 2021 @03:01PM (#28980894)
Your homepage is not your New Tab Page.
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Re:Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web i... by cpeterso on Sunday October 24, 2021 @05:44PM (#28982210)
Looks like you're right. I didn't realize the home page setting didn't also apply to the New Tab page.

I skimmed through about:config and didn't find any alternate way to change the New Tab URL other than a browser extension, like you said.

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Re:Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web i... by tsimionescu on Sunday October 24, 2021 @03:57PM (#28981336)
Honest question: what is the difference? Why would you want a custom home page but not a new tab page?
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Re:Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web i... by theHIDninja on Sunday October 24, 2021 @04:53PM (#28981799)
A homepage is what appears when you launch the browser. A new tab page is the page that appears when you open a new tab. I want a custom new tab page, which is a feature Firefox disabled. I personally do not care if the homepage and the new tab page are different as I never use the homepage (I always choose to restore from previous session).
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Re:Google had a plan called “Project NERA” to turn the web i... by tsimionescu on Sunday October 24, 2021 @05:39PM (#28982174)
Oh, I had misunderstood. I thought from the way the comments were going that you wanted the opposite - that they allow you to customize New Tab but not the Homepage, and I was wondering who uses the home page anymore.
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