diff --git a/components/dashboard/src/components/RepositoryFinder.tsx b/components/dashboard/src/components/RepositoryFinder.tsx
index 352c9560dc678b..21fadab0cb42ea 100644
--- a/components/dashboard/src/components/RepositoryFinder.tsx
+++ b/components/dashboard/src/components/RepositoryFinder.tsx
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 
 import { User } from "@gitpod/gitpod-protocol";
 import React, { useContext, useEffect, useState } from "react";
-import { Link } from "react-router-dom";
 import { getGitpodService } from "../service/service";
 import { UserContext } from "../user-context";
 
@@ -14,7 +13,7 @@ type SearchResult = string;
 type SearchData = SearchResult[];
 
 const LOCAL_STORAGE_KEY = 'open-in-gitpod-search-data';
-const MAX_DISPLAYED_ITEMS = 15;
+const MAX_DISPLAYED_ITEMS = 20;
 
 export default function RepositoryFinder(props: { initialQuery?: string }) {
     const { user } = useContext(UserContext);
@@ -38,6 +37,10 @@ export default function RepositoryFinder(props: { initialQuery?: string }) {
         }
     }
 
+    useEffect(() => {
+        search('');
+    }, []);
+
     // Up/Down keyboard navigation between results
     const onKeyDown = (event: React.KeyboardEvent) => {
         if (!selectedSearchResult) {
@@ -81,18 +84,9 @@ export default function RepositoryFinder(props: { initialQuery?: string }) {
             <div className="py-4">
                 <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16" height="16"><path fill="#A8A29E" d="M6 2a4 4 0 100 8 4 4 0 000-8zM0 6a6 6 0 1110.89 3.477l4.817 4.816a1 1 0 01-1.414 1.414l-4.816-4.816A6 6 0 010 6z" /></svg>
             </div>
-            <input type="search" className="flex-grow" placeholder="Search repositories and examples" autoFocus value={searchQuery} onChange={e => search(e.target.value)} onKeyDown={onKeyDown} />
+            <input type="search" className="flex-grow" placeholder="Paste repository URL or type to find suggestions" autoFocus value={searchQuery} onChange={e => search(e.target.value)} onKeyDown={onKeyDown} />
         </div>
         <div className="mt-3 -mx-5 px-5 flex flex-col space-y-2 h-64 overflow-y-auto">
-            {searchQuery === '' && searchResults.length === 0 &&
-                <div className="mt-12 mx-auto w-96 text-gray-500">
-                    Paste a <a className="gp-link" href="https://www.gitpod.io/docs/context-urls">repository context URL</a>, or start typing to see suggestions from:
-                    <ul className="list-disc mt-4 pl-7 flex flex-col space-y-1">
-                        <li>Your recent repositories</li>
-                        <li>Your repositories from <Link className="gp-link" to="/integrations">connected integrations</Link></li>
-                        <li>Example repositories</li>
-                    </ul>
-                </div>}
             {searchResults.slice(0, MAX_DISPLAYED_ITEMS).map((result, index) =>
                 <a className={`px-4 py-3 rounded-xl` + (result === selectedSearchResult ? ' bg-gray-600 text-gray-50 dark:bg-gray-700' : '')} href={`/#${result}`} key={`search-result-${index}`} onMouseEnter={() => setSelectedSearchResult(result)}>
                     {searchQuery.length < 2
@@ -157,10 +151,6 @@ async function actuallyRefreshSearchData(query: string, user: User | undefined):
 }
 
 async function findResults(query: string, onResults: (results: string[]) => void) {
-    if (!query) {
-        onResults([]);
-        return;
-    }
     const searchData = loadSearchData();
     try {
         // If the query is a URL, and it's not present in the proposed results, "artificially" add it here.
diff --git a/components/server/src/workspace/gitpod-server-impl.ts b/components/server/src/workspace/gitpod-server-impl.ts
index 8982e5fed407a6..78f386ecd8de90 100644
--- a/components/server/src/workspace/gitpod-server-impl.ts
+++ b/components/server/src/workspace/gitpod-server-impl.ts
@@ -1029,7 +1029,7 @@ export class GitpodServerImpl implements GitpodServerWithTracing, Disposable {
 
     public async getSuggestedContextURLs(ctx: TraceContext): Promise<string[]> {
         const user = this.checkUser("getSuggestedContextURLs");
-        const suggestions: string[] = [];
+        const suggestions: Array<{ url: string, lastUse?: string }> = [];
         const logCtx: LogContext = { userId: user.id };
 
         // Fetch all data sources in parallel for maximum speed (don't await in this scope before `Promise.allSettled(promises)` below!)
@@ -1037,7 +1037,7 @@ export class GitpodServerImpl implements GitpodServerWithTracing, Disposable {
 
         // Example repositories
         promises.push(this.getFeaturedRepositories(ctx).then(exampleRepos => {
-            exampleRepos.forEach(r => suggestions.push(r.url));
+            exampleRepos.forEach(r => suggestions.push({ url: r.url }));
         }).catch(error => {
             log.error(logCtx, 'Could not get example repositories', error);
         }));
@@ -1046,7 +1046,7 @@ export class GitpodServerImpl implements GitpodServerWithTracing, Disposable {
         promises.push(this.getAuthProviders(ctx).then(authProviders => Promise.all(authProviders.map(async (p) => {
             try {
                 const userRepos = await this.getProviderRepositoriesForUser(ctx, { provider: p.host });
-                userRepos.forEach(r => suggestions.push(r.cloneUrl.replace(/\.git$/, '')));
+                userRepos.forEach(r => suggestions.push({ url: r.cloneUrl.replace(/\.git$/, '') }));
             } catch (error) {
                 log.debug(logCtx, 'Could not get user repositories from App for ' + p.host, error);
             }
@@ -1064,7 +1064,7 @@ export class GitpodServerImpl implements GitpodServerWithTracing, Disposable {
                     return;
                 }
                 const userRepos = await services.repositoryProvider.getUserRepos(user);
-                userRepos.forEach(r => suggestions.push(r.replace(/\.git$/, '')));
+                userRepos.forEach(r => suggestions.push({ url: r.replace(/\.git$/, '') }));
             } catch (error) {
                 log.debug(logCtx, 'Could not get user repositories from host ' + p.host, error);
             }
@@ -1077,7 +1077,8 @@ export class GitpodServerImpl implements GitpodServerWithTracing, Disposable {
             workspaces.forEach(ws => {
                 const repoUrl = Workspace.getFullRepositoryUrl(ws.workspace);
                 if (repoUrl) {
-                    suggestions.push(repoUrl);
+                    const lastUse = WorkspaceInfo.lastActiveISODate(ws);
+                    suggestions.push({ url: repoUrl, lastUse });
                 }
             });
         }).catch(error => {
@@ -1088,14 +1089,25 @@ export class GitpodServerImpl implements GitpodServerWithTracing, Disposable {
 
         const uniqueURLs = new Set();
         return suggestions
-            .sort((a, b) => a.toLowerCase() > b.toLowerCase() ? 1 : -1)
-            .filter(r => {
-                if (uniqueURLs.has(r)) {
+            .sort((a, b) => {
+                // Most recently used first
+                if (b.lastUse || a.lastUse) {
+                    const la = a.lastUse || '';
+                    const lb = b.lastUse || '';
+                    return la < lb ? 1 : (la === lb ? 0 : -1);
+                }
+                // Otherwise, alphasort
+                const ua = a.url.toLowerCase();
+                const ub = b.url.toLowerCase();
+                return ua > ub ? 1 : (ua === ub ? 0 : -1);
+            })
+            .filter(s => {
+                if (uniqueURLs.has(s.url)) {
                     return false;
                 }
-                uniqueURLs.add(r);
+                uniqueURLs.add(s.url);
                 return true;
-            });
+            }).map(s => s.url);
     }
 
     public async setWorkspaceTimeout(ctx: TraceContext, workspaceId: string, duration: WorkspaceTimeoutDuration): Promise<SetWorkspaceTimeoutResult> {