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My goal is to block the annoying Google "doodles" (i.e. animated soccer-related promos, etc.) that appear in Chrome when a New tab is opened.

Here's what's been tried so far:

  1. Use AdBlock Plus to specifically block the doodle. This actually works very well on the Google.com page itself but as it turns out, opening a New Tab (Cmd-T) doesn't actually load Google.com. It loads some kind of plug-in where AdBlock has no influence.

  2. To which you're probably thinking, "Just change your homepage to Google.com in the Settings". Strangely, this doesn't work. Chrome will hijack the request to Google.com and redirect it to the opaque plug-in described above.

  3. I also tried to be clever by setting my start-up page to a more specific URL like https://www.google.com/search. It resulted in the same outcome. I even tried using a tinyurl.com redirect for a start-up page, but this still doesn't work. Chrome still hijacks the request if it knows that the end result is the Google search page.

The only thing that's been remotely helpful is this extension which replaces the New Tab plug-in with a blank page. This is a step in the right direction. The Doodle goes away and I can perform my search from the URL bar. But the ideal scenario would be to make use of the default Google New tab page but without the annoying doodles.

Do you know of a clever way to accomplish this?

7
  • 1
    Although I'm not too well informed of chrome's things, as far as I know the newtab page, along with other builtin pages (like the settings and bookmarks pages) aren't accessible to plugins for security reasons, only by themes and builtin gimmicks of Chrome itself. So I don't think there's an easy way to disable them.
    – arielnmz
    Jun 29, 2014 at 18:28
  • google.com/ncr = no-country-redirect, leading to way less Doodles (since they are usually country-specific). Jun 29, 2014 at 18:48
  • 1
    @techie007: You'd think this would work but it doesn't. Google still hijacks the request and redirects to it's own internal NewTab plug-in which, of course, includes the huge doodle. If it wouldn't hijack the request, I'd be all set; AdBlock would remove the Doodle ASAP from the HTML page. But because hijacks the request and redirect to a plug-in that's immune to AdBlock, I'm stuck. Jun 29, 2014 at 20:19
  • @arielnmz: Yes, unfortunately you are correct. :( Jun 29, 2014 at 20:19
  • I understand doodles are an integral part of Google’s corporate image on the Google Search homepage and the Google Chrome New Tab page. I have nothing against showing them but it should be my election to run them or not (and hog my CPU), taking into account that I open Google search page to search, as its name suggests, not to play. With this aggresive behavior all they get is people scattering or looking for ways to never see again their corporate image (me)... or getting on their users nerves.
    – cdlvcdlv
    Feb 22, 2018 at 9:26

12 Answers 12

5

There's a new flag (use-google-local-ntp) that allows disabling New Tab Page service worker and therefore also Google Doodle. Currently it's available in Google Canary 61 so let's hope it lands in stable (soon).

chrome://flags/#use-google-local-ntp

Switch it to "Enabled" and restart Chrome. I wrote about it in this blogpost.

EDIT: It's already available in the stable Chrome 60.

4
  • It's Jan 2018 (Chrome 63) and I can confirm this method is working. Thanks! Jan 22, 2018 at 10:14
  • 10
    This flags is gone. 76.0.3809.100 I'm forced to see another political Doodle. Aug 14, 2019 at 19:31
  • 1
    It's year 2021 and I'm forced to see a political doodle on every new homepage tab on Google Chrome. It sucks when the option to turn off the doodles is gone. I'm switching to other browsers to get rid of the mind-hijacking by Google.
    – Rockallite
    Feb 19, 2021 at 1:35
  • Its like google keeps preventing one from blocking them, everytime there is a solution, they disable it. Aug 1, 2021 at 13:22
3

Maybe not a complete solution, but if you go into Settings and change your omnibox search engine to something that's not Google, then the new tab page will only show recently visited pages (no huge Google logo and whatnot). You can still set your homepage to Google for quicker access to searches, but for most of my omnibox searches, Bing works acceptably. If Google wants to play it that way...

3
  • 2
    This technique works and the Doodle is removed! But then I'm stuck using an inferior search engine. :( Your answer gave me an idea, though. If I click the "manage search engines" button, could I create my own entry that (in)directly points to the Google HTML page and avoids the plugin? Well, it allows you to do this...for any search page EXCEPT Google, including tinyurl redirect pointers. The amount of effort Google engineers put in to forcing people to view their Doodle when using their search engine is absolutely astounding! I am in awe. Jun 29, 2014 at 20:28
  • This is evil! Curse on Google!
    – Anwar
    Feb 18, 2015 at 10:53
  • @Anwar You know the former Google motto, don't you?
    – cdlvcdlv
    Sep 4, 2018 at 8:24
3

I tried Chad Decker's idea given in his comment: "If I click the "manage search engines" button, could I create my own entry that (in)directly points to the Google HTML page and avoids the plugin?"

I copied the URL of the default Google search engine to a new name, and made that the default search engine, namely:

{google:baseURL}search?q=%s&{google:RLZ}{google:originalQueryForSuggestion}{google:assistedQueryStats}{google:searchFieldtrialParameter}{google:bookmarkBarPinned}{google:searchClient}{google:sourceId}{google:instantExtendedEnabledParameter}{google:omniboxStartMarginParameter}{google:contextualSearchVersion}ie={inputEncoding}

For me this works (on openSUSE 64bit, latest updates, October 31, 2014). So I don't have to see those ugly Halloween doodles any more. ;-)

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  • This is an interesting solution and definitely one worth exploring. Thanks for sharing that. What I ended up doing was installing a Chrome extension called "Empty New Tab Page." Now when I open a new browser window or tab, I'm presented with a totally blank page with the cursor set to the search bar at the top. That, combined with the AdBlockers, allow me to use Google in much cleaner, clutter-free way. I'll never have to deal with those annoying "doodles" again. :) Oct 31, 2014 at 18:12
  • To be clear, my solution above does not "present with a totally blank page", as the extension you suggest; it is just not the Google Doodle that appears, only the name "Google". This is enough for me, but if you want a blank page, the extension you propose is definitely better.
    – jciloa
    Oct 31, 2014 at 18:58
  • 1
    A Google employee suggested searching from an empty results page: https://www.google.com/search?q=+ It works for me on my phone, where I can't use Adblock etc. It's bizarre how Google's original page was specifically designed to not have any crud like this, and now they go out of their way to force it on us.
    – endolith
    Jan 11, 2016 at 17:43
  • @endolith I use myself this very solution. I think the page you reference contains the simpler ways to get rid of annoying Google's doodles. You should add it as an answer.
    – cdlvcdlv
    Feb 22, 2018 at 9:07
  • 1
    @endolith I think Google is making a new move. I was getting recurrent captchas with every search. I connected to VPN and the same thing until I came up with deleting search?q=+ and no more captchas! 😠
    – cdlvcdlv
    Jul 16, 2018 at 10:31
3

The only solution I've found so far is Blank New Tab Page extension

It removes Google search bar from the new tab altogether. But I'm used to searching from the address bar using Alt+D anyway.

1

In Chrome Version 79.0.3945.130 (Official Build) (64-bit) I had to:

  1. Go to Menu -> More Tools -> Developer Tools
  2. In the lower panel click "Request blocking"
  3. Add local-ntp/doodle.js

Enjoy!

0

You can actually block the Doodle animation with AdBlock Chrome's extension (or similiar) like if was an advertisement.

  • Go to the Customize panel of the AdBlock extension
  • Add a new custom filter with this line:

    www.google.com##A#ctDoodleNotifier
    
  • Then save, the Doodle animation will disappear!

If you also want to disable the "Most visited" panel, also add this line:

www.google.com##div#most-visited

Some Notes:

  • If you live outside USA, you should update the google.com domain to the one your country belongs (the AdBlock filter doesn't work apparently with wildcards).
  • This assumes that the Doodle animation is inside an A tag with ID="ctDoodleNotifier"
  • Similiar, the Most visited panel is inside a DIV tag with ID="most-visited"
  • This was tested on Chrome version 43.
  • When Chrome is launched, the New Tab page loads as original. I infer is because the AdBlock plugin is not loaded at that time. Updating the page will work as expected.
0

Since Chrome 73 you have to set to Disabled the next flag:

chrome://flags/#doodles-on-local-ntp
0

Just install Clear New Tab and you're good to go.

0

For MacOS Chrome Version 88.0.4324.182

  • Install "Site Blocker" Extension (Offered by: sabitovt28) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/site-blocker/abbjadgihgopjhbhlpmglakadnfhphmp

    • Add www.google.com/logos/doodles/ as the address to block with the Blocking keyword/pattern dropdown choice.
    • Do the same for google.com/logos/
    • May need to force refresh the New Tab page to avoid cache issues. I noticed it took several refreshes and New Tab opens for the doodle to be gone for good. Might need to do a cache clear more generally, though I did not need to.
  • Some of Google's served NewTab ads are done through data urls, so the above won't work. Need to additionally perform the following:

    • Click Customize button inside NewTab page.
    • Select Color and scheme
    • Choose any color choice other than the default-selection (Changing the background image should also work if you prefer.)
    • The data image should now be replaced by Google text
  • Smile and say goodbye to political virtue signaling.

0

[Edit: No longer works]

Solution I found:

The url chrome-search://local-ntp/local-ntp.html directs to an identical chrome search page but with just the "google" text and not the doodle

Using the extension "New Tab Redirect" which I found in the chrome web store (here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-tab-redirect/icpgjfneehieebagbmdbhnlpiopdcmna/) you can set that url to the new tab redirect.

This still functions without a network connection and the page loads for all I can tell exactly as quickly as the default new tab

0

I found this extension works really well for Chrome's dark mode:

Preview

-1

It might sound over sensitive, but I found Google's 'doodles' distracting.

I downloaded firefox, it has an option to import site logins/passwords, history, and bookmarks all with a single button when installing.

5 minutes later I now have a similar browsing experience without google doodles.

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