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Mozilla To Show Sponsored Links To First-Time Firefox Users

Posted by Soulskill on from the trying-not-to-say-the-word-'ad' dept.

Mozilla has announced a new initiative to show sponsored content within the Firefox browser. Currently, opening a new tab in Firefox will display a set of nine tiles showing your most commonly visited websites. When a user installs Firefox and opens it for the first time, they see these tiles, but eight of them are blank (one links to a Firefox tutorial). As the user browses the web, those tiles gradually fill in with visited sites. But Mozilla is going to fill out those blank eight tiles for new users. They say, "Some of these tile placements will be from the Mozilla ecosystem, some will be popular websites in a given geographic location, and some will be sponsored content from hand-picked partners to help support Mozilla’s pursuit of our mission. The sponsored tiles will be clearly labeled as such, while still leading to content we think users will enjoy." Existing users shouldn't see any difference, and the tiles will be replaced with commonly-visited sites like they do now.

11 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. RIP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    RIP you were fun while you lasted but now you have sponsored ad browsing based on like's/visits Do not want.

    1. Re:RIP by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hold the knee-jerk reaction to the perceived spam and realize what it really means.

      If they are true to their promise, all it really means is that the 9 slots that hold the "most visited" pages in your browser are now, when you do a clean install, not empty as they are now but filled with ad pics. If they keep that promise and don't "secretly" or "accidentally" replace your pages with their ads, I fail to see the harm. As soon as you have "frequently visited" pages, the ad pages are rotated out of existence.

      If that's all it takes them to keep going, well, why'd I complain? It's one more browser to choose from and competition is by definition a good thing. If it becomes actually invasive and if it replaces my frequent pages with their spam pages... NEXT!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re: RIP by deuce4208 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      RIP? If it's just going to fill spots that were blank anyway I don't see what the big deal is. I don't have a problem with that at all. Let them make a little bit of money on new users who will click on those ads. You would have never even known about it had it not been for this article or you did a fresh install of Firefox anyway.

    3. Re:RIP by SpzToid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      FireFox has done a really good job of keeping itself relevant, along with Chrome. Specifically I am referring to the developer tools. I use FireFox myself, although Adobe mobile developers also have a cool tool to render mobile devices inside the Chrome browser, where they can work using Chrome dev tools. But I still like the new FireFox dev tools better, along with the older FireBug and a few of its odd plugins.

      --
      You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
  2. Re:Confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Chrome

    Because you dislike advertisements, you want to use a browser made by an advertising company?

  3. Re:Confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Chrome

    Because you dislike advertisements, you want to use a browser made by an advertising company?

    At this point asking wether to use Firefix or Chrome is like choosing between Democrats or Republicans.
    Makes no fucking difference at all. They both shit on their users.

  4. Google reliance by Warbothong · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If this reduces Mozilla's reliance on Google's money then that can only be a good thing. Especially since Mozilla's main sponsor is now also a competitor :/

  5. Re:Confusion by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because you dislike advertisements, you want to use a browser made by an advertising company?

    Pretty sure you meant "because you dislike advertisements, you want to to use a browser made by an advertising company which will also pillage and rape your personal information."

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  6. Who cares? by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At the end of the day, I still trust Mozilla far more than Google, Microsoft or Apple to respect my privacy.

    1. Re:Who cares? by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's always a knee-jerk reaction to anything related to advertising simply because as a medium it's been abused so much throughout its history.

      Try as I might, I can't really fault Mozilla for the way they're handling this, and yeah, I would like to see them get another source of revenue.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  7. What about blocking third party cookiest first? by guacamole · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering that Mozilla promised to block third-party cookies by default in Firefox years ago, surely the sponsored links feature is going to take the backseat until they sort out the handling of third-party cookies first?