The Redundant Navigation Icon
For decades, web browsers featured a prominent “Home” button—an icon shaped like a tiny house sitting next to the URL bar. Clicking it would instantly teleport you back to a specific webpage you had defined as your starting point (like Yahoo or MSN). Google Chrome still includes this button, but it is disabled by default on new installations.
If you have enabled it, you might realize that it is largely redundant in modern web browsing. The “New Tab” page (which you can access instantly by pressing Ctrl + T) serves the exact same purpose, providing a Google search bar and shortcuts to your most visited sites. Furthermore, you can simply pin your favorite starting page to the tab bar. If you find that you never actually click the little house icon and you want to reclaim that tiny bit of space next to your address bar for browser extensions, you can easily hide the Home button.
How to Hide the Home Button
You can remove the icon via Chrome’s Appearance settings.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner and select Settings.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Appearance.
- Look down the main pane for the toggle switch labelled Show Home button.
- Toggle the switch to the Off position.
The tiny house icon will instantly vanish from the top-left corner of your browser interface, giving your address bar (the Omnibox) a few extra pixels of breathing room.