December update: UNpaused :) Feedback welcome for New Tab widgets, now available via Firefox Labs

[AmberMeryman]

Update as of December 8 - we are un-pausing this feature in Firefox Labs, as we've resolved an issue where Lists were disappearing. It's important they persist! 

Hi! I’m Amber from the Firefox team.

We’re testing a new idea: simple, built-in productivity widgets on your New Tab page. They’ll be there on every new tab to keep you on-task, or on a break. (Previously available in Nightly & Beta, they are now available in Firefox Labs in Release!)

This early experiment includes:
✅ Lists - jot down your reminders, errands, or priorities for your browsing activities
⏰ Focus Timer - track your study session, deep work research, or quiet break time

And everything stays local, is never shared with Mozilla, and it’s easy to turn on and off.

Feedback is welcome to inform our next steps! Would you like to see more widgets? Which ones? Notes, Quotes, fun ones or helpful ones? Sync for optional backup? Drop your thoughts below.

- Amber & the Firefox team

[rohankh]

Thanks for opening this discussion — I feel the same way. Two concrete points that make this a security and privacy issue:

1. Search vs navigation must be separated. A New Tab search box should always do a search; entering what looks like a URL (or IP) in that box should be treated as a search query unless the user explicitly switches to the address bar.

2. Private windows behave differently. A setting I changed in about:config stopped the handoff — but it still happens in private windows. That inconsistent behavior has caused me to accidentally navigate to potentially malicious or internal URLs I only meant to search for.

If it helps the devs, I put a short analysis and a reproducible example on my site (this is my website): https://inatbixindir.tr — the page summarizes steps to reproduce and a suggested UI change: keep search-box results contained to search and only let the address bar handle navigation.

Please consider adding an explicit, persistent “Search box only” mode for New Tabs (with a clear toggle), and make sure it applies in private windows too. Thanks!

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

About, widgets.
For information purposes.
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/get-weather-and-clock-built-into-the-home-screen/idc-p/110609/h...

About, browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar.
Yes, under, about:privatebrowsing, it doesn't work.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history
Always use private browsing mode or to Never remember history, it works.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Ever wish you could peek at a page before you click?

Preview webpages in Firefox with link preview.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-link-previews-firefox

On-device AI models in Firefox.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/on-device-models

Preview link

Link preview

Ever wish you could peek at a page before you click?

[KutayX7]

I got to try this feature today, and immediately tried to break it. 🙂

Here's what I found:
- While this is likely to be intentional, these widgets have a mouse hover effect while the search bar doesn't.
- List items can overflow to the right when there are very long words/numbers.
- When opening the (···) menu on the lists widget, the list quickly flickers up and down.
- You can copy paste large numbers into the minutes part of the timer. But it goes back to 98 after seconds hit 0.
- When using keyboard navigation and selecting timer minutes/seconds, they remain visually selected until you switch to another text input on the page.

OS: Kubuntu 25.10
Firefox version: 146 (flatpak)