Google Chrome will soon let you dismiss promos on your New Tab Page

From time to time, Google places a small promotional message on their homepage, and these promos are often also shown on Chrome’s New Tab Page. Google has created a way for you to dismiss promos from the Google Chrome New Tab Page.

Google uses these homepage promos to inform people of everything from upcoming events and products to things like Safer Internet Day. Google Stadia got a homepage promotion back in August, and the Made by Google event will surely be teased on the homepage sometime next month.

Seeing these messages when you visit Google.com is a normal part of using the internet, but having them appear every time you open a new tab in Chrome can be somewhat frustrating and intrusive. The folks at Techdows have spotted that Google has created a simple fix to allow you to “dismiss” these New Tab Page promos, currently hidden behind a flag.

Dismiss promos on the New Tab Page

Enables a UI to persistently dismiss [non-emergency] promos on the bottom/middle of the New Tab Page

#ntp-dismiss-promos

Once the flag is enabled, any time Google adds a promo to Chrome’s New Tab — assuming it’s not for some sort of emergency announcement — it will also include an “X” to close it, as seen in work-in-progress images shared on the Chromium bug tracker.

Once dismissed, that particular promo will no longer appear in your Chrome New Tab Page. However, there are currently no plans to allow Chrome’s New Tab Page promotions to be disabled altogether. That means you’ll need to dismiss each individual promo that Google decides to push to Chrome’s New Tab Page.

Google is currently set to bring this step in the right direction with Chrome 79, with the flag already available in the latest Chrome Canary builds.