PKB

Firefox Start Page Update

November 13th, 2007 | Category: Mozilla

This week, we’ll be making a minor update to the Firefox Start Page for the English locale. Here’s what’s changing:

  • Search navigation links will be updated to match the links on google.com. The categories over the search field in the current Firefox Start Page (Web, Images, Groups, News and Maps) will be updated to match the categories on google.com and moved to the upper left part of the page.
  • Links to account controls will now appear on the upper right side of the page if you’re already signed into the Google network. For example, if you’ve signed into Gmail and stayed logged in, you’ll see your Google network username and options to access your account or sign out in the upper right part of the Start Page.

We’re working with Google (who is our search partner for the Start Page) to make these minor changes to sync up with updates to the google.com search experience. You currently see the updated search navigation links in the header of the results page after you initiate a search on the Firefox Start Page. We’ll start with English and roll updates out worldwide over the coming weeks.

Updated 10/5/08: A lot of people are reaching this blog post while searching for some variant of “How to change the Firefox Start Page.” If that’s you, this article on the Mozilla Firefox Support site will help you.

10 Comments so far

  1. YAplanetReader November 14th, 2007 1:33 am

    By “English locale” do you mean google.com & en-US only? I’m in the UK and Google automatically redirects the .com/firefox page to a .co.uk/firefox one. It looks as you describe it, but I’m wondering whether it’s the same page served differently.

    Which is my roundabout way of asking, will I see the new pages when .com is updated or will I have to wait like my French and German cousins? :)

  2. La página de inicio de Mozilla se actualiza… ahora se integra mejor a Google : November 14th, 2007 2:22 am

    [...] Según un post de Paul Kim, encargado de marketing de Mozilla, esta semana la página de inicio de Mozilla se actualizará para estar mejor integrado con el buscador de Google. [...]

  3. Paul Kim November 14th, 2007 7:51 am

    @YAplanetReader: it’s going to be a staged rollout, starting with en-US and google.com first.

  4. YAplanetReader November 14th, 2007 7:55 am

    OK, thanks for the answer!

  5. J. Hannon November 15th, 2007 8:29 am

    I have been using the Firefox State Page because I did not like the links in the upper left corner that Google changed to. Is there any chance you would change it back?

  6. Paul Kim November 15th, 2007 10:17 am

    @J. Hannon: we received a great amount of user feedback over the past year asking for the links on the Start Page to be updated to match updates to search categories at google.com, so we don’t plan to change it back at this time.

  7. Bryce November 17th, 2007 1:15 pm

    @J. Hannon/Paul Kim…

    very good chance someone will make a greasemonkey script for this anyways. ;)

  8. wesley December 4th, 2007 12:09 pm

    Any way to add gmail to the firefox start page? It’s quite annoying to have to change the page to google everytime i load the page whether it be on new installs or new oses.

  9. Paul Kim December 4th, 2007 12:45 pm

    @wesley — if you login to your Gmail account and stay logged in, you’ll see Gmail show up in the header area when you return to the Firefox Start Page.

  10. wesley December 4th, 2007 3:21 pm

    i meant to say that i like that feature. however when i open the browser initially, not logged in yet, that’s the first thing i do is check email, and the link is not present. i realize i could just as easily create my own page or use a bookmark, but i thought others could benefit. thanks anyway! cheers!