How to make Brave’s new tab open Google
Chrome’s Google new tab page only exists in Chrome. In Brave you have three ways to get close: open google.com on every new tab, pick Google in the new tab’s search box, or make Google your default search engine for the address bar.
1. Open google.com on every new tab
- Go to
brave://settings/appearanceand turn on Show home button. - Choose the custom web address option and enter
https://www.google.com. - Go to
brave://settings/getStartedand set New tab page shows to Homepage.
New tabs now load Google’s search page. One trade-off: the cursor starts in the address bar, so typing searches with your default engine, which is the next setting.
2. Make Google your default search engine
- Go to
brave://settings/search. - Under the default search engine setting, choose Google.
Everything you type into the address bar, on any tab, now searches Google.
3. Search Google from the dashboard
If you keep Brave’s dashboard, open a new tab, click the Customize gear and open Search. Tick Google in the list of engines; the icon at the left of the new tab search box then switches between the engines you ticked.
| You want | Do this |
|---|---|
| Google’s page on every new tab | Home page set to google.com, new tab shows Homepage |
| Google results when you type in the address bar | Default search engine set to Google |
| Keep the dashboard, search Google from it | Customize, Search, tick Google |
Or replace the dashboard with your bookmarks
Brave installs extensions from the Chrome Web Store, including ones that take over the new tab page. Stackboard is one: it turns every new tab into a board of your own bookmarks, in spaces and stacks, with themes and no ads, and it saves everything as ordinary bookmarks in Brave. To go back to Brave’s dashboard later, turn the extension off at brave://extensions.
Questions
Why can’t Brave show Google’s own new tab page?
Google’s new tab page, with its shortcuts and doodles, is built into Chrome. Other browsers can open google.com, which is the same search page without the Chrome extras.
Does making Google my default engine change my privacy in Brave?
Your searches then go to Google under Google’s privacy policy. Brave’s shields and other protections still apply on the pages you visit.
Try Stackboard
A free Chrome extension that turns your new tab into a board of your own bookmarks. No account, nothing leaves your browser.
Add to Chrome, it’s free