Mozilla Decides Against Ads In The New Tab Page

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Mozilla Decides Against Ads In The New Tab Page

A few months ago Mozilla originally shared plans to begin selectively putting ads within the "New Tab" page of Firefox. Well, after a lot of user feedback, they have decided against doing so...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTY4NzE

[Spittie]

Nowhere in that article they say that they have changed their plain, you're just taking a quote out of context.
"That?s not going to happen. That?s not who we are at Mozilla." refer to "we were going to turn Firefox into a mess of logos sold to the highest bidder; without user control, without user benefit."

This is not news, everyone (that cared to listen instead of just attacking Mozilla) already know that those "ads" where links to famous websites that users would probably browse anyway (Facebook, Ebay...), and anyway the user could always remove them at anytime.

For anyone wondering, this might be the list of sponsored tiles, at least for America:

- https://www.facebook.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/
- https://twitter.com/
- https://www.wikipedia.org/
- https://www.mozilla.org/
- https://www.eff.org/
- http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/
- http://www.nytimes.com/

(Took from somewhere on Bugzilla, so take with some salt).

[nirvanix]

From what I understand, Mozilla already receives many millions of dollars from having google as the default search. More than enough for a non-profit web browser. I will drop Mozilla if they force ads on the tab page - and yes a suggested link is still an ad.

[Daktyl198]

Nowhere in that article they say that they have changed their plain, you're just taking a quote out of context.
"That?s not going to happen. That?s not who we are at Mozilla." refer to "we were going to turn Firefox into a mess of logos sold to the highest bidder; without user control, without user benefit."

This is not news, everyone (that cared to listen instead of just attacking Mozilla) already know that those "ads" where links to famous websites that users would probably browse anyway (Facebook, Ebay...), and anyway the user could always remove them at anytime.

For anyone wondering, this might be the list of sponsored tiles, at least for America:

(Took from somewhere on Bugzilla, so take with some salt).

Well, to be fair, the article was saying the upcoming experiments WEREN'T monetary. But you're right, that isn't to say that there wouldn't be paid-for selections there in the future.
I honestly think it's a great idea, and anybody who thinks otherwise doesn't fully understand...

[afeder]

All good

I honestly see nothing wrong in their plan. I hate ads, and often they make webpages look cheap and unappealing. But the way they are styled and placed in this scheme seems so tasty that I would be happy to have them if it can make me less of a freeloader on the Firefox product.

[DeepDayze]

I honestly see nothing wrong in their plan. I hate ads, and often they make webpages look cheap and unappealing. But the way they are styled and placed in this scheme seems so tasty that I would be happy to have them if it can make me less of a freeloader on the Firefox product.

If they put them as placeholders in the empty spaces on the New Tab page then that should be fine as well.

[Spittie]

From what I understand, Mozilla already receives many millions of dollars from having google as the default search. More than enough for a non-profit web browser. I will drop Mozilla if they force ads on the tab page - and yes a suggested link is still an ad.

Yes, this is all to become less dependent on Google.
Google would be crazy to drop their partership with Mozilla now (depending on where you read, Firefox still has a 20-30% marketshare, and a good 90% of those users just use the default search engine), but as Firefox marketshare get lower*, Google could change their mind. Sure, as soon as Google drop/don't renew the contract someone else (Microsoft, Yahoo) will pay to get there, but it will be much less money.

*Since someone will take my words out of context, I want to specify that Firefox marketshare is not lowering because Mozilla is doing bad. It's because IE is a somewhat decent browser now, so people don't seek for something better, and Chrome is advertised every-fucking-where on the internet (Google homepage? Check, Google translate? Check, Ads? Check, Bundled like an adware? Check).

As for "force", it really depends on what you mean by force. So far, they're talking about showing those only on new profile, the user can remove them by pressing on a [x], and they get replaced as you browse like empty tiles.

Well, to be fair, the article was saying the upcoming experiments WEREN'T monetary. But you're right, that isn't to say that there wouldn't be paid-for selections there in the future.
I honestly think it's a great idea, and anybody who thinks otherwise doesn't fully understand...

Actually, those are monetary, Mozilla will get some revenue for sponsored tiles.
The article just say that they won't just sell this space to the ones that offer the most, otherwise we'd get 9 tiles of "buy viagra" and "hey, I see you live in localhost".

[psychoticmeow]

From what I understand, Mozilla already receives many millions of dollars from having google as the default search. More than enough for a non-profit web browser. I will drop Mozilla if they force ads on the tab page - and yes a suggested link is still an ad.

It's like you don't know anything about the thing you're talking about, amazing job!

[emblemparade]

The way they planned to place these ads is very unintrusive from my point of view, but the very fact that they are listening to the community is what makes Mozilla the most important institution for a free a Internet. There are other free and open source browsers out there, but Firefox remains at the forefront of innovation, marketing ... and freedom. It should be most people's browser of choice.

Google's Chrome/Chromium might be popular among free software users, but I maintain that it's a mistake to put eggs in that basket. Free software is free software, period, but Google is not as honorable a custodian as Mozilla is.

[lovenemesis]

Nowhere in that article they say that they have changed their plain, you're just taking a quote out of context.
"That?s not going to happen. That?s not who we are at Mozilla." refer to "we were going to turn Firefox into a mess of logos sold to the highest bidder; without user control, without user benefit."

This is not news, everyone (that cared to listen instead of just attacking Mozilla) already know that those "ads" where links to famous websites that users would probably browse anyway (Facebook, Ebay...), and anyway the user could always remove them at anytime.

For anyone wondering, this might be the list of sponsored tiles, at least for America:

(Took from somewhere on Bugzilla, so take with some salt).

Agreed.

I don't see any wrong by putting some popular sites on New Tab page. They're easily removable and will be replaced by the actual user preferable ones after running a while.

For people attacking Mozilla for only trying to generate some revenue on this, take a close look at the list. Honestly I don't think Mozilla will get a cent from Wikipedia by listing it there.

Strangely, people lives comfortable by having some Search options preloaded in Search Box for years.