firefox new tabs

isn't there a place anywhere to set firefox to open TO something in its new tabs? I get this blank page with about 15 "suggestions" (icons of major sites) but all I really want is GOOGLE.

IE has a setting for "home page", "start page" and "what to open with new tabs" separately. doesn't FF have the latter two?

 

FF>Tools>Options>General>set home page to whatever you want to.
Also, buy mouse with scroll wheel press feature for it. Drag mouse pointer onto any link or bookmark, and click scroll wheel on it. It will open link in new tab.


http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn101/ukrkoz/Capture-1_zps34c611b3.png

 

That only applies to the home page, i.e. the first tab when Firefox is first opened; it does not apply to additional tabs opened.

What ReBar is talking about is the SpeedDial page. To disable the display of it, follow the procedure in this reference: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57448701-285/how-to-permanently-disable-speed-dial-in-firefox/

 

A few alternatives

The New Tab suggested websites are sites you go to frequently, if one of those suggestions is Google you can move your cursor over the top left corner of the box and click on Pin this site then you can drag the box to any position you like and it will always be there. You can do this for any website that is suggested so the New Tab page is then basically a favorite bookmarks page

If you want the New Tab to open in a Bookmarked page (including your Homepage) you can hold down the Ctrl key while left clicking on the icon or Middle click (scroll wheel click) on the icon

To always go to google.com (or whatever) when you open a New Tab follow these instructions:
- Type about:config in the URL address box of the Navigation Toolbar then press the Enter key
- Accept the I'll be careful warnung
- Type browser.newtab.url in the Search field
- The Value for the searh result will be about:newtab (by default) right click on that and select Modify
- Type in the url address of the site you want to go to, in this case google.com then click OK

 

Sorry, I missed the edit timeout and I should have mentioned this before.

If you change the address to google.com the New Tab will go to Google but the cursor will be flashing in the address bar not in the Google search box so you will have to click in the search box before you type.
This means you haven't really saved a click

If you change the address to about:home the New Tab will go to the FireFox start page which has a Google search box and the cursor will be flashing in that Google search box (ready to type)
This means you have saved a click

As you might have guessed, I have been through all this before but I eventually went back to the New Tab with the pinned boxes, it is very handy for me

 

This is kind of overkill just to manage new tabs, but there is an Add-On that provides a bunch of tab options.

Tab Mix Plus

 

Interesting. Mine always starts blank for new tabs. Good to know, thank you.