Firefox Nightly gets a native Stocks widget and a revamped New Tab search experience

The New Tab page on Firefox Nightly is getting some improvements, and a Stocks widget is also in the works. There are improvements to the search box and the overall UI layout of the New Tab page in the latest version of Nightly.

The information comes from Mozilla’s official Nightly News page. You can view a screenshot of the changelog below.

At the time of writing, the latest version of Nightly is v158.0a1.

Here are some of the important changes in this update, simplified:

1. Multi-context address bar for the New Tab page has been enabled. You can directly type your queries in the search bar that shows up on the page, instead of needing to use the address bar’s search feature at the very top of the browser.
   
2. A white flash issue on the New Tab startup has been addressed. This used to happen for users with dark mode enabled by default.
3. Development can be faster now because developers no longer need to manually create WebPack bundles when changing New Tab JSX/SCSS files.
4. Furthermore, Developers can now inspect and edit stylesheets directly from the JavaScript Debugger pane, rather than having to switch to another DevTools section for those changes. However, this remains experimental, and you need to enable it separately.
5. Enterprise controls are now respected.
6. The Shortcut button is easier to find. A “+” shortcut button always appears when hovering over or outside the edge of the New Tab shortcuts area.
7. Rendering fixes, accessibility improvements, telemetry changes, wallpaper fixes, and other bug fixes related to the address bar, PiP, and more.
8. Experimental Privacy widget: Mozilla has begun rolling this out with various bug resolutions as well. However, we couldn’t spot it on our version of Firefox Nightly.
   
9. New layout experiments: Mozilla is testing new layouts, including one with the widget column on the left. Another new feature is Carousel cards, where the New Tab feeds can now use these swipeable/rotatable cards.
10. Expanded New Tab widgets can now automatically minimize.
11. Infrastructure for a Recent Searches widget is now being built. However, it’s not available yet.
12. A new Topic Navigation Strip is also being implemented, giving users a horizontal way to switch between topic feeds faster.
13. Stocks widget: Initial rollout for the US market. A dropdown lets users switch between markets and watchlists without needing to leave the widget. Firefox will also remember the selected view. Mozilla has also added a compact 1X1 size version of this widget. This is still “in-flight,” so it won’t be available for everyone yet.

Note: This list picks out some important user-facing changes from a lengthy and convoluted list. You can view the entire changelog here.

In other Firefox news, the Android version of the browser is testing a bottom tab bar placement for easier one-handed navigation. More on that here.

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