News sites are designed to maximize time-on-site. Headlines are algorithmically ranked, related article panels compete for your attention, and the homepage is refreshed to surface new content continuously.
For a quick "what is happening" check, this design works against you.
News Widget Dashboard for Firefox is a different approach.
How it works
The extension replaces the Firefox new tab with an RSS feed reader. You add RSS feed URLs from sources you choose. Headlines from those sources appear as a list. Click a headline to open the article.
News Widget Dashboard — Firefox Add-ons
Setup
- Install the extension
- Open a new tab
- Add RSS feed URLs for your preferred sources
Most news sites publish RSS feeds (usually at /feed or /rss). Add the ones you read.
What you get
- Headlines from your chosen sources only
- Chronological order (newest first)
- No recommendation engine
- No ads on the new tab
- No "related articles" panels
Who it works for
Good fit:
- People who follow specific topics and want to stay current without opening news site homepages
- Anyone who wants news without algorithm-driven curation
- People who already use RSS readers and want browser-native access
Not a good fit:
- People who want news discovery (finding new sources, trending topics)
- People who need push notifications for breaking news
- Anyone who prefers the full news site reading experience
Privacy
Your RSS feed subscriptions are stored locally in Firefox's extension storage. No list of your reading interests is transmitted to any server.
Install News Widget for Firefox
News Widget Dashboard is one of 11 Firefox extensions I built — see the full series.
