I use Goggle as my search engine with firefox. I have also hated having my homepage set with Goggle sprawled across it and a constant flash player ad.
Finally last week I devised a solution that gave me the ability to have nearly any web based photo set as my homepage, sounds like a infomercial but rest assured its not
Using firefox and Google do a search for any topic you want , I used mountains , do your search then click on Images at the top of the page.
Now click search tools and size match it to your screens resolution , it will look better and load faster this way.
Find a photo you like or want to test on the Image page click on it then view image then full screen.
If you like the image & it fits your screen , go into firefox tools , general and set homepage to use current homepage.
Your done , now when you open firefox you will go straight to the image, from there you can search from up by the address bar in the right search box.
Any time you want a new homepage photo go back into images and set a new homepage.
Try it , enjoy it be creative and free of the white page lock down.
You heard it here first !
(I think haha)