The way each person sets up Fast Dial 1.x in Firefox will differ according to individual tastes.

(Fast Dial 2.x is different see here)

All we can do here is to look at the different options and see how to achieve them

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If in Firefox you go Tools/Options/Main you will see the following Startup Menu.

This is where you can set up how Firefox opens in relation to Fast Dial.

What is useful to realise is that "Show a blank page" in the first field is exactly equivalent to "about:blank" in the second field.

So the above set up would Open Fast Dial on Start up and also makes Fast Dial the Home Page.
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Here for example is a minimalist choice

If the choice for when Firefox/Bon Echo opens is set to blank page this will open Fast Dial when Firefox Opens.
Here there is no Home Page selected at all.

Someone with such a set-up is probably accessing Fast Dial by using The Fast Dial Toolbar Button (or CTRL-T)

A person with such a set up is probably accessing Google by another method, possibly by using the very convenient Google Toolbar Button Extension

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There are other options available.

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You can set about:blank as your Home page and have this configuration:

This will open Fast Dial on Firefox startup and will also allow Fast Dial to be accessed by clicking on the Firefox Home Toolbar Icon (centre mouse click opens in new tab)

or by going History/Home in Firefox or typing ALT-HOME on the Keyboard

This setup may not be so convenient for accessing Google

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Another option is the following:

This will cause Fast Dial to show on start up, but will allow the user to access Google by clicking the Firefox Home Toolbar Button (centre mouse click opens in new tab) or going History/Home in Firefox or typing ALT-HOME on the Keyboard

Someone using this system is probably accessing Fast Dial via the Fast Dial Toolbar Button.(or CTRL-T)

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Another option is the following:

It is possible using the option "use current pages" to set up Firefox when it opens to show Google and Fast Dial in separate Tabs.

To set this up you need to have only the two tabs Google and Fast Dial open in Firefox, at that point you then need to click on "use current pages" in the Startup Menu.

This will save the two open tabs and will cause Firefox to always open with these two tabs.

(You can reverse the order by reversing the Tabs, if you wish)

With the set up as outlined in the Menu above, this would also mean that if you hit the Firefox Home Toolbar Button that both Google and Fast Dial should open in new tabs.

This option is rather cumbersome and does not always function perfectly , but you are welcome to try it out. ________________________________________________________________