Type chrome://newtab/#most_visited into Chrome’s address bar and you land on the same page that opens every time you press Ctrl+T — but with the anchor specifically pointing at the shortcuts grid. It’s not a hidden page or a settings menu.
It’s Chrome’s new tab page, and the #most_visited portion is a URL fragment telling the browser to focus on the shortcut tiles section when it loads.
Most people have used this page thousands of times without thinking about what generates it. Understanding how Chrome decides what appears in those tiles — and how to control every part of that — makes the feature significantly more useful.
chrome://newtab/#most_visited: How Chrome Decides What Goes in Each Tile
Chrome doesn’t pull from a simple history list. It runs a weighted algorithm that continuously evaluates four signals: how often you visit a site (visit frequency, the heaviest factor at around 85% influence), how recently you visited it (roughly 70% influence), how long you spend there per session (around 55%), and how deeply you interact with the page — clicks, form submissions, scrolling — at roughly 40%.
The recency weighting matters more than most people realize. A site you visited 10 times this week outranks one you visited 20 times last month. Chrome treats your current browsing patterns as more predictive of what you want quick access to than your historical patterns — which is why the tiles shift when your habits change.
All of this processing happens locally. Chrome stores this data in your browser’s profile folder on your device. Nothing in the most visited algorithm transmits browsing data to Google’s servers — it’s one of the few Chrome features where the company’s cloud infrastructure genuinely isn’t involved.
The Two Modes Most People Don’t Know Exist
Chrome’s new tab page actually runs in two distinct shortcut modes, and most users don’t know they can switch between them. Click the Customize Chrome button at the bottom right of any new tab page, then look under the Shortcuts section.
Most visited sites is the algorithm-driven mode: tiles update automatically based on your browsing patterns. You don’t choose what appears — Chrome does, based on the signals above. My shortcuts is manual: you pin specific sites yourself and Chrome leaves the grid alone. The tiles only change when you add or remove them.
Switching between these modes is the single most impactful customization most users never make. If the algorithm keeps surfacing sites you don’t need quick access to, or if you want a stable set of tiles that doesn’t shift based on what you happened to visit during a busy week, switching to My shortcuts gives you a fixed starting page you control completely.
Removing, Pinning, and Editing Individual Tiles
For sites you want gone from the most visited grid, hover over the tile until a More icon (three dots) appears in the top-right corner. Click it and select Remove. Chrome immediately fills the gap with the next site in its priority ranking.
Pinning works the same way: hover, click More, select Pin. A pinned tile stays in the grid even if your browsing patterns shift — useful for work tools or dashboards you access daily but might not visit at the exact frequency the algorithm would otherwise prioritize.
To edit a tile’s display name or URL, hover, click More, select Edit shortcut. This is particularly useful if Chrome has pulled a URL with session parameters or tracking strings attached — you can clean the URL to its base form.
What Incognito Sessions Do and Don’t Affect
Incognito browsing doesn’t contribute to the most visited algorithm. Sessions opened in a private window don’t add to visit counts, don’t update recency scores, and don’t influence which tiles appear on your regular new tab page. The separation is complete.
This matters in both directions. If you’re researching something in incognito that you don’t want appearing in your regular tiles, it won’t. But it also means incognito sessions won’t help a site you’re trying to establish in your tiles — those visits simply don’t count.
One nuance worth knowing: Google settled a $5 billion lawsuit in 2024 over tracking users in incognito mode through other mechanisms, including third-party site data.
The most visited feature specifically is not involved in that — it’s a separate, local system — but it illustrates that “incognito” carries different implications across different parts of Chrome’s architecture. For the new tab page tiles specifically, incognito isolation is genuine.
When Tiles Disappear and How to Get Them Back
The most common reason tiles vanish is clearing browsing history. Chrome uses your visit history as the raw data for the algorithm — delete the history and the algorithm has nothing to rank, so tiles either go sparse or disappear entirely.
Automatic data clearing settings cause the same effect invisibly. If you’ve enabled “Clear cookies and site data when you close all windows” or a similar setting, Chrome may be resetting its data between sessions. Check Chrome Settings → Privacy and Security → Cookies and other site data for any active automatic clearing rules.
Rebuilding tiles after a history clear is simply a matter of visiting sites regularly over a few days. The algorithm responds to current behavior, so a week of normal browsing restores a populated tile grid without any manual intervention.
Hiding Shortcuts Entirely
Some users prefer a completely clean new tab page — search bar only, no tiles. Chrome supports this without extensions. Click Customize Chrome at the bottom right of the new tab page, find the Shortcuts section, and toggle off Show shortcuts.
The shortcuts toggle is reversible at any time. Turning shortcuts back on restores the grid, populated by whatever browsing data Chrome has accumulated during the period they were hidden.
For users who want more than Chrome’s built-in options allow — custom background images, widgets, bookmarks integration, task lists — third-party extensions replace the new tab page entirely.
Linkflare, Momentum, and similar tools ranked highly in 2026 reviews serve as full dashboards built around personal productivity rather than visit frequency. These require granting the extension access to your new tab page, so reviewing permissions before installing is worth the extra minute.
Managed Devices: When Chrome Adds Tiles You Didn’t Visit
On organization-managed Chrome installations, the new tab page may show a Drive priority card below the shortcut tiles — surfacing Google Drive files attached to upcoming calendar events, recently commented files, or other work-context suggestions.
This is separate from the most visited algorithm and is controlled by organizational policy rather than personal browsing patterns.
To dismiss specific Drive card suggestions without disabling the feature entirely, click More at the top right of the card and select Hide for now. To turn off the Drive card completely, select Never show Google Drive files from the same menu.
Mobile vs Desktop: Different Behavior, Same Feature
Chrome on Android and iOS displays the most visited tiles in a similar grid layout on the new tab page, but customization options are narrower than on desktop. The Customize Chrome panel with the full Shortcuts settings isn’t available on mobile in the same form — tile management happens primarily through long-pressing individual tiles to access remove and edit options.
Browsing patterns on mobile tend to weight social media platforms and mobile-optimized services more heavily than desktop sessions do, since those are the dominant use cases on phones.
Users who split time between mobile and desktop Chrome with sync enabled will see tile rankings that blend both patterns — a site visited primarily on mobile will still factor into the desktop tile ranking through the synced history.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does chrome://newtab/#most_visited actually do?
It opens Chrome’s standard new tab page with the URL fragment directing focus to the shortcuts grid.
Does Chrome send my most visited sites data to Google?
No. The most visited algorithm runs locally and stores data in your browser profile on your device. This specific feature doesn’t transmit browsing data to external servers.
Why did my shortcuts disappear after clearing history?
Chrome builds the tiles from your visit history. Deleting history removes the data the algorithm ranks from, leaving tiles empty or sparse until new browsing data accumulates.
Can I pin a site so it always appears even if I stop visiting it?
Yes — hover over any tile, click More (three dots), and select Pin. Pinned tiles stay in the grid regardless of how your browsing patterns shift.
What’s the difference between Most visited sites and My shortcuts mode?
Most visited sites updates automatically based on your browsing patterns.
