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Mozilla Rolls Out Sponsored Tiles To Firefox Nightly's New Tab Page

Posted by timothy on from the now-how-much-would-you-pay? dept.

An anonymous reader writes Mozilla has rolled out directory tiles, the company's advertising experiment for its browser's new tab page, to the Firefox Nightly channel. We installed the latest browser build to give the sponsored ads a test drive. When you first launch Firefox, a message on the new tab page informs you of the following: what tiles are (with a link to a support page about how sponsored tiles work), a promise that the feature abides by the Mozilla Privacy Policy, and a reminder that you can turn tiles off completely and choose to have a blank new tab page. It's quite a lot to take in all at once.

16 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by recoiledsnake · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I atleast hope they use the money for something really good, like desktop Linux, instead of chasing mobile with Firefox OS.

    With Google clamping down with Chrome, promoting on Google and Youtube and paying to bundle it everywhere like with Java, Flash and Acrobat updates, I am surprised Firefox hasn't lost even more marketshare, but I do think the clock is ticking.

    --
    This space for rent.
    1. Re:Well... by mystikkman · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Mozilla is the only hope left in the browser market. The rest are controlled by mega corps. Witness the recent ramrodding of video DRM into W3C standards by Google, Microsoft and Apple, all of which have their own DRM implementations.

      Not to mention Firefox being forced to support H.264 playback, after Google promised and backtracked on removing support from Chrome. Based on the above two cases, I guess it's already too late, corporate control has taken over the web.

    2. Re:Well... by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It bothers me a lot when I see people shouting "abandon all hope". It's not that bad.

      Still, I would like to see Firefox getting more of its revenue from sources other than Google. Maybe the Firefox Phone will go a long way to realizing that.

      On the other hand, I found tiles on the new page useful, if only marginally. I would prefer to be able to turn off the ads and still use the tiles. But if I must turn them all off to do away with the ads, I will.

      I almost forgot: Chromium is hardly a major player in the browser market.

      Firefox is important, and we should support it. But I don't think supporting it via ads is the best way to go.

    3. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Opera has been reduced to a reskinned Chrome.

      Posting this on an Opera 12 holdout machine.

    4. Re: Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The problem is that it's a dumbed-down UI design. Maybe this works well for some users, buy it's extremely limiting and inefficient for others.

      A lot of us specifically avoided Chrome or Chromium, and used Firefox instead, because it offered a much more usable UI. But Australis has taken away that advantage of Firefox, however.

      Unfortunately, I had to switch to Chromium. If I'm going to get the same dumbed-down UI whether I'm using Firefox or Chromium, I might as well just use Chromium because it does feel a lot faster than Firefox does. And I'm not going to waste my time installing one extension after another just to undo the bad changes that the Firefox devs forced on us.

      Mozilla has lost me as a user and as a supporter. I will no longer make donations to them, I will no longer earn them search revenue, and I will no longer recommend their products. It pains me to have to take such a stance, but they left me no choice with how they have destroyed Firefox and refused to listen to what their users actually want.

    5. Re:Well... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...What, exactly, do you hate about it?...

      For starters, I do not 'hate" software. It's not an emotional thing for me. I look at software as something that helps me do what I need and/or want to do.

      .
      To that end, Firefox's Australis is a degradation of Firefox. It has significantly reduced my ability to customize the user interface of Firefox to suit my needs.

      Mozilla's attempt to find a "one size fits all operating systems" approach to Firefox has resulted in a significant dumbing down of the user interface.

      I do not want Firefox to look the same across all the OS's I use. I want Firefox to exploit each OS to the greatest extent while staying within the conventions of that OS. That's where Mozilla went astray....

  2. Fork in the Road by tuck3r · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I find myself agreeing less and less with the things the Mozilla is doing as a company. I get what they want to do and where they want to go, just don't agree with the methods they are using.

    --
    tuck3r
  3. Re:Work for the man, not for mankind by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's how I feel too: they've turned Firefox into a cheap whore - albeit with an opt-out option.

    Yet I realize they have to make money to keep bringing out new Firefox releases.

    Yet... it sucks. Ads sucks. Ad-funded internet sucks.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  4. Turn tiles off... but for how long? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...a reminder that you can turn tiles off completely ...

    How long will it be before Mozilla decides that the users no longer need the ability to turn off the sponsored tiles?

    1. Re:Turn tiles off... but for how long? by narcc · · Score: 3, Informative

      1) about:config
      2) search for newtab
      3) double-click browser.newtab.url
      4) Modify to your heart's desire.

      If that doesn't satisfy you:

      Open userContent.css, add the following:
      @-moz-document url("about:newtab") { #newtab-search-container { display: none !important; } }

      You're welcome.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
  5. I can ignore tabs somehow by NotInHere · · Score: 3

    I can ignore ads on the "new tabs" page. I'm more concerned about the "share" garbage they want to add to the context menu: https://bug1000513.bugzilla.mo...

    1. Re:I can ignore tabs somehow by psyclone · · Score: 3
      Interesting, from the PDF you linked:

      Potential for revenue; paying for top-tier placement for first-run

  6. R.I.P. Mozilla by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful
    one of the core values of the Mozilla manifesto is this:

    use the Mozilla assets (intellectual property such as copyrights and trademarks, infrastructure, funds, and reputation) to keep the Internet an open platform;

    How does mozilla expect sponsored advertisement to exist without a conflict of interest? It can't. Mozilla is now beholden to and will become ever increasingly dependent upon ad revenue, which in turn will ensure mozilla projects and opinions will be screened before release to meet the advertisers approval.

    personally? im switching because i still want a free internet. check out icecat or midori.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  7. Re:Work for the man, not for mankind by psyclone · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To compete with Google [Chrome] they need to not rely on Google for 90% of their funding.

    As long as the ads are clearly marked with no privacy implications (no pre-fetch of those sponsored tiles that sends cookies, exec's javascript, pings 40 trackers, etc.) then I support the move.

    It's sad, but if Mozilla dies, will any free software group fill their void? The Net would never be the same...

  8. Pale Moon by BenFenner · · Score: 3, Informative

    I am so thankful for Pale Moon. I don't have to read Firefox news with dread anymore. Even at work here using Linux I can enjoy it.

    http://www.palemoon.org/

  9. Mozilla tiles too complicated? by lippydude · · Score: 5, Informative

    "When you first launch Firefox, a message on the new tab page informs you of the following .. It's quite a lot to take in all at once"

    It seems fairly straight forward to me: a) a promise that the feature abides by the Mozilla Privacy Policy, b) a reminder that you can turn tiles off completely ..