Funny that this feature appears to be added not to save users embarrassment when others are looking at their screens, or they are giving presentations (that has been a real user problem for years right?) - it seems to be added in order to prevent advertisers from getting complaints about content next to ads on new tab page.

More proof that ad companies and their brands are ruling the world, not user experiences.

The article mentions "just shy of 3,000 domains are on the blacklist, though exactly what they all are isn't immediately clear: the domains are stored in a hashed form, so there's no straightforward way of identifying all of them."

I wonder how a script could be made that would check what sites don't show by using a new install and adding the top 3 visited sites in the word, check if they all appear, then refresh / install and add the next 3 most visited sites, check if they appear, repeat until 2900 sites are found not to appear. Maybe?

Who uses those boxes ?

If the new-tab page contains websites I frequently visit, I eventually got there from easy-to-reach shortcuts!

Therefore I won't bother trying to locate the website I want to reach from a grid of pictures, especially if the order changes randomly.

"New-tab" opens a distraction-free white page on my browsers.