Add ability to customize number of top sites shown on Dashboard (new tab page)

[chetanpm]

Description

Block space for frequently visited sites (div class="sc-bbmXgH fIpoOp"> ) if made to adapt responsively and expand to full width depending on how many sites users might want to see there.

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave 0.70.121 Chromium: 78.0.3904.70 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision edb9c9f3de0247fd912a77b7f6cae7447f6d3ad5-refs/branch-heads/3904@{#800}
OS macOS Version 10.14.6 (Build 18G95)
JavaScript V8 7.8.279.17
Flash (Disabled)
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_14_6) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.70 Safari/537.36
Command Line /Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/MacOS/Brave Browser --enable-dom-distiller --disable-domain-reliability --no-pings --extension-content-verification=enforce_strict --extensions-install-verification=enforce --sync-url=https://no-thanks.invalid --enable-features=NewExtensionUpdaterService,PasswordImport,WebUIDarkMode,SimplifyHttpsIndicator --disable-features=AutofillServerCommunication,LookalikeUrlNavigationSuggestionsUI,NotificationTriggers,AudioServiceOutOfProcess,SmsReceiver,SyncUSSBookmarks,UnifiedConsent --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end
Executable Path /Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/MacOS/Brave Browser
Profile Path /Users/chetanpm/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default

Miscellaneous Information:

[rebron]

cc: @cezaraugusto Can you triage this one? Not clear what the feature request is here. Looks like @chetanpm wants more top sites?

[chetanpm]

Yes more website icons like the bookmarked ones and top visited sites.

[bsclifton]

Updated the title to be more specific and linked to this from the large parent issue #353

[johnnypoll]

More top sites will be great, also don't just use favicon as some sites don't have a favicon, then all the top site links look identical. Add title text below each box like chrome perhaps.

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from Community:
https://community.brave.com/t/is-10-the-maximum-of-top-sites/132083/2

[aaronsantamaria]

+1 from Community:
https://community.brave.com/t/more-than-6-top-sites/138108

[aaronsantamaria]

+1 from Community:
https://community.brave.com/t/more-quick-sites-on-start-page-please/153935

[bsclifton]

cc: @karenkliu @bradleyrichter @rebron - I can't remember if the new top sites spec had ability to do two rows...

[karenkliu]

@bsclifton Yep! For user-curated mode people can have unlimited top sites tiles; it starts paging after 2 rows. For frecency mode we're still keeping it at 6.

[stefankeys]

Yeah that would be nice. I would rather not have to resort to yet another awful newtab extension.

[Goddard]

Firefox new tab topsites is one of my favorite features.

I turn off everything on the new tab and just have all my top sites on it. I extend it to have like 20 rows by changing about:config

Would be great if I had this option in Brave. One of the few features keeping me from switching.

[aaronsantamaria]

+1 from Community:
https://community.brave.com/t/incrementar-el-numero-de-top-sites/165058

[aaronsantamaria]

+1 from Community:
https://community.brave.com/t/increase-the-amount-of-pinnable-top-site-please/166118

[bsclifton]

The experience is a bit better now after merging brave/brave-core#7859

For frequently visited sites (default), it still only shows 6. When switching to customize mode you can have up to 12

[wzxu]

Trying Brave for the first time today, I'm liking that it has a built-in speed dial like Safari and Firefox, but surprised to find I can't add more than 12 shortcuts, which was annoying enough I started searching for solutions, and landed here. So I guess 12 is the current limit…

Hopefully the number of rows will be able to be customized in the future (for example 1~4 rows, that'd be 6, 12, 18, 24 icons, which should be enough for most). In the meantime, installing another speed dial extension I go…

[bsclifton]

cc: @karenkliu on above comment by @wzxu ^^

Right now, the # of tiles is limited... should we allow this to be further configurable? (ex: number of rows?). If we don't want to allow further customization, we should close as wontfix

[sheikh-azharuddin]

While this topic is for desktop...we want more top sites in android similar to Vivaldi..please add the feature 🙏

[DmitryTestOne]

It could be something like a slider, to scroll the item's rows, like: 12 items in 2 rows, slide right, next 2 rows, slide right, next 2, slide back and etc.
The size of the block stays the same, more icons are added.

[fallaciousreasoning]

This should be in Nightly in the next few days

[stephendonner]

Verified PASSED using

Brave	1.43.58 Chromium: 104.0.5112.81 (Official Build) beta (x86_64)
Revision	5b7b76419d50f583022568b6764b630f6ddc9208-refs/branch-heads/5112@{#1309}
OS	macOS Version 13.0 (Build 22A5311f)

pagination appears

• confirmed adding 12th site makes pagination appear (at which point the Add site widget populates the 2nd "page")

pagination disappears

• confirmed pagination disappears when going from 12 -> 11 Favorites
• confirmed the Add site widget returns to the bottom-right position

keyboard navigation/accessibility

• can tab to elements {site icon/placeholder}
• spacebar acts as click event

favorites (bookmarks)

max # = 48

confirmed Add site widget disappears once you reach 48 bookmarks

confirmed Add site widget reappears once you reach 47 (or fewer) bookmarks

frequently visited sites

max # = 6

migration

1.42.88 -> 1.43.58

• installed 1.42.88 and populated 12 favorites
• confirmed no pagination or ability to add additional ones
• upgraded to 1.43.58
• confirmed pagination with 2nd page including Add site widget

1.42.88	1.43.58	Add site

Brave News

• tested with and without Brave News enabled
• ensured no layout or functionality issues

[dportela]

How is this closed and marked as if it is available in the 1.43.x release, when in fact nothing has changed? There is still a limit of 12 icons per "page". Most of my dashboard is unused because of this, and having more sites there would greatly improve my efficiency. If an option has indeed been added to increase the maximum number of sites, I can't find it.

[Dzmitry-One]

How is this closed and marked as if it is available in the 1.43.x release, when in fact nothing has changed? There is still a limit of 12 icons per "page". Most of my dashboard is unused because of this, and having more sites there would greatly improve my efficiency. If an option has indeed been added to increase the maximum number of sites, I can't find it.

Check once again, it was fixed many times ago.
Update browser and add 12 site, u should see a scroll for the next tab, 4 tabs in total is the current maximum

[dportela]

Check once again, it was fixed many times ago. Update browser and add 12 site, u should see a scroll for the next tab, 4 tabs in total is the current maximum

You're right that part of the requests made in the discussion above were met, but the name of the ticket is "Add ability to customize number of top sites shown on Dashboard (new tab page)". It seems clear that while the number of top sites was changed to 12 and a few tabs added, no customization as to the number of top sites shown on Dashboard was added at all. We are still unable to display more than 12 sites on a NTP or to adjust this display in any way (set horizontal limit for rows, for instance). Most of our Dashboard is empty and we'd like to be able to reclaim that real estate with more visible sites. So we still require customization, which is what this ticket was all about.

[DanielTheBard]

Check once again, it was fixed many times ago. Update browser and add 12 site, u should see a scroll for the next tab, 4 tabs in total is the current maximum

You're right that part of the requests made in the discussion above were met, but the name of the ticket is "Add ability to customize number of top sites shown on Dashboard (new tab page)". It seems clear that while the number of top sites was changed to 12 and a few tabs added, no customization as to the number of top sites shown on Dashboard was added at all. We are still unable to display more than 12 sites on a NTP or to adjust this display in any way (set horizontal limit for rows, for instance). Most of our Dashboard is empty and we'd like to be able to reclaim that real estate with more visible sites. So we still require customization, which is what this ticket was all about.

Agreed. Want to see more than 12 max at once. My ADHD needs immediate vision to remember sites and there's so much wasted space on the new tab that could be used for more than 12 top sites at once.

[Venkatvin]

Jira story title: Make the number of rows and columns flexible on the new tab customization page for top sites.
Note: Do not hard code, do not make users click on a bread crump where you have copy-pasted the widget card. Do not give us pre-determined max rows and columns with 12 cells as max. If you want to hardcode, hardcode to 12x12 top sites.

[AdamK222]

Still waiting for the fix

[Goddard]

No point in waiting. It is closed. Just use Firefox.

[fallaciousreasoning]

You could open a new issue and link it to here, so people can find it. @rebron what do you think?

[Venkatvin]

Unless the architecture cannot handle this feature, it should not be closed, imho. I think having unlimited landing pages like the Vivaldi browser is very helpful.

…

On Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 8:30 AM Ryein Goddard ***@***.***> wrote: No point in waiting. It is closed. Just use Firefox. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6619 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APT5X4IBLQQYEQNEPXJ272LXD2ASDANCNFSM4JFMMBWQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[adrianinsaval]

Brave doesn't want the starting page to be filled with icon because the ads would not be seen, it hurts their business model, it won't happen

[Venkatvin]

What part of this is ad? Brave talk? [image: image.png] Are we talking about the same thing?

…

On Mon, May 1, 2023 at 7:24 AM Adrián Insaurralde Avalos < ***@***.***> wrote: Brave doesn't want the starting page to be filled with icon because the ads would not be seen, it hurts their business model, it won't happen — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6619 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APT5X4LYQ6RLDS2LAY3ZJDTXD7BSVANCNFSM4JFMMBWQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Ferk]

Brave has an option to use Sponsored images as background, which contributes to your Brave Rewards payout.

It makes sense for them to want to prevent too much clutter blocking the ads in the background.

If you don't want to earn coins by having a sponsored background, just use one of the many extensions that replace the dashboard... like say Humble New Tab Page or AnotherTab.

[metablaster]

Why is this closed when there is still no option to customize how many top sites are shown?

[mlntr]

I made a related issue, which will hopefully give us more customisation for the top sites, see #30668