Firefox 151 release refreshes New Tab page, supports PDF merging

The new tab page has a (slightly) new look and a new name in Firefox 151, the latest update to Mozilla’s famous open-source web browser that rolls out this week (May 18).

Now called Firefox Home, the new tab page has a “new look and feel”, to quote Mozilla. It’s not quite that dramatic, but the rounded search bar (no longer sticky on scroll) draws from the upcoming Nova redesign.

You can now also choose to show more shortcuts, up to a maximum of 4 rows.

Stories stay put, but the button to follow a topic moves to the left-hand side. The refresh aims to neatly slot in new-tab page widgets (notes and timer are available to test via Firefox Labs). Finally, Mozilla enthuse over a set of ‘new and exciting’ backgrounds to try.

Has Mozilla looked at Microsoft Edge’s algorithmic bin-fire of a new tab page and said “hold my oat matcha, I want what they’re having”? It’s not that bad (yet), but the company clearly views any open space the way a property developer would: opportunity.

You can continue to dismiss individual stories and block topics on Firefox Home to fine-tune the cacophony of ‘exceptional content’ (as Mozilla call it) on the new tab page, turn it off¹ – or at least opt-out of content being personalised based on your browsing (enabled default).

Some other design changes (ahead of a full browser-wide Nova revamp) in this version includes a more compact, tightly arranged Settings page (about:preferences). The settings search bar now spans the full-width of the settings column, rather than sitting in the corner.

Other changes in Firefox 151

A session clearing button is added to Private Browsing Mode. You no longer have to close a private window to delete cookies, history and site data. Instead, click the button and okay the prompt to instantly expunge the data and start afresh automatically.

Like a lot of features found in Firefox of late, this borrows from rival browsers, here DuckDuckGo Browser’s “Fire” mode, right down to a ‘fire’ icon to clear, but sans its cool animation.

Firefox’s built-in PDF viewer and editor continues to pick up new features. This update lets you merge PDF files into a single document. There are other ways to merge PDFs on Linux, but being able to do in the default browser is certainly handy.

Last month’s Firefox 150 release added a dedicated page for using the browser’s on-device translations feature, accessed via about:translations. In Firefox 151, you no longer need to type an address as there’s a link in the More Tools section of the in-browser app menu.

On the privacy side, Firefox 151 improves fingerprinting protection in Standard Enhanced Tracking Protection mode, ‘limiting the amount of information revealed about your device and browser’ to make it harder for websites to track you across different sites.

Download Firefox 151

You can download Firefox 151 from the Mozilla FTP from today (Monday, 18 May) or from the official Firefox website on 19 April, 2026.

However, most of you will already have Firefox installed. The update will roll out in-app on Windows and macOS, while on Ubuntu, where Firefox is a Snap, it will update in the background automatically.

Linux Mint users can update via the Mint Update tool (or apt from the command-line).

You can also install the Firefox Flatpak on Flathub. If you use that on Ubuntu, don’t forget to update via the command-line (flatpak update) or use a GUI app like Bazaar, which is available in the Ubuntu 26.04 repos for easier access.

1. I can’t say I’ve ever opened a new tab specifically wanting to view existential dread and (frankly) utter nonsense vying for my immediate attention (War! Doom! This one weird trick! Doctor’s say we all breath wrong!), yet I’m made to look at it before I do as much as type a URL. ↩︎