Google Chrome's New Tab Page may soon get a customization boost

[harlan4096]

Google Chrome users may soon get additional customization options to change the default functionality and layout of the browser's New Tab Page.

Chrome users who want to modify the New Tab Page currently don't find many options to do so. The best option for many is to download a New Tab Page extension to customize what is displayed on the page.

Google has been working on New Tab Page customization improvements for a while. Recent modifications are now available in Chrome Canary, the cutting edge version of the Chrome browser.

The changes are not fully implemented at this point but they provide an outlook of things to come. The options are hidden behind experimental flags at the time; users who want to follow their development need to enable them in Chrome Canary:

1. Load chrome://flags/#ntp-customization-menu-v2 in the Chrome address bar and set the flag to Enabled.

2. Load chrome://flags/#chrome-colors in the Chrome address bar and set the flag to Enabled.

3. Restart the Chrome browser.

Chrome customization menu

Open the New Tab Page after the restart and activate the customize option on that page to open the redesigned customization menu.

The Shortcuts section is not fully functional yet but it highlights Google's intention clearly. Chrome users get options to select the type of shortcuts that they would like to see on the New Tab Page.

* My shortcuts -- The shortcuts are displayed based on the frequency of visits and selected by Chrome.

* Most visited sites --Shortcuts are curated by the user.

The wording of both options seems confusing but it is a development version and Google is probably going to address this before release.

The third and final option is to hide any shortcuts on the New Tab Page.

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