Ads in Firefox?

Published on November 16, 2014 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

Yes…get used to the idea, because you’re going to be seeing them. This is a good lesson in economics and evolution. This decision came along with the launch of Ff 33.1, or should it now be called AdFox? The ads will appear in the form of Tiles in the new tabs page which is used to show your most visited sites (by frequency and recentness):

Google is the major source of FF’s funding, your default search engine has been Google…unless you changed it. It has been that way since before Chrome.

Now for the lesson in economics-evolution. FF has fallen to third place among browsers with a 14% market share. Chrome has 21%, and IE has surged to 58%. Since that doesn’t give Mozilla a decent bargaining position, FF has started running to ads to increase revenue and decrease its dependency on Google for bucks. FF’s first two advertisers? CVS Health and their media agency Mindshare North America.That of course raises the question of tracking. FF says it’s not allowing tracking beacons or code in those tiles. They also said:

“One thing I must note: users of ad blocking add-ons such as Ad Block Plus will see adverts by default and will need to switch Tiles off in Firefox if they wish to see no ads in their New Tab page. You can read more about how we design for trust here. [https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2014/11/13/designing-tiles-for-trust/]”- Darren Herman

“Denelle Dixon-Thayer [https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2014/11/13/designing-tiles-for-trust/] wrote:

We ensure that no data is sent to us until you interact with the feature.

You control the feature and can turn it off easily if you don’t find it useful.

You can audit us – all of our code is open and auditable by you. In particular, you can learn more about the code that powers this feature here.

If a user has previously opted into Do Not Track, we assume this means the user does not want to see Tiles so we pref Tiles off for those users. (Note: If a user subsequently opts in to DNT, the user will need to switch Tiles off).

The data we collect is transmitted over HTTPS/TLS.

My thought? They have to start making money. To do so, they’re being as ethical as possible.

If you can’t tolerate this, turn off your Tiles page in FF, although I think that’s a bit over the top. Also remember, FF has DNT for its users anyway. AdBlock Plus might well be putting out an update which will make itself compatible with the Tiles page.

Sources:

http://news.thewindowsclub.com/firefox-70031/

https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/11/13/announcing-firefox-tiles-going-live-today/

https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2014/11/13/designing-tiles-for-trust/

Comments

kryo

on Nov 16, 2014

Note that you will only see those if you don't have enough sites to fill up the space. And the CVS one is the only one that isn't for Mozilla themselves.

DrJBHL

on Nov 16, 2014

There are ways around it. One can put one's fave urls in a folder on the bar and turn off tiles altogether.

The point is that they're at least doing what they have to do within an ethical context.

kryo

on Nov 16, 2014

Looks like you don't even have to work around it. If you see any in the space not taken up by your own links, you can just mouse over them and an X appears. Hit that and they're gone.

DrJBHL

on Nov 16, 2014

I don't use FF myself. This is for members who do.

2of3

on Nov 16, 2014

I don't see any ads. my tiles are filled with my latest open sites. With 15 tiles total, it shouldn't be a big issue to fill them up......

ElanaAhova

on Nov 16, 2014

While I am not a big fan of ads everywhere, I appreciate FF being up front about their plans - and providing a way to turn the ads off. BTW, I don't use FF anymore, switched to whitehataviator a few months back.

alaknebs

on Nov 16, 2014

i use about:blank as homepage / new tab page anyway...

ps.. to turn ads on and off... just open a new tab... there's a gear like icon near top right... select blank -> about:blank (no ads)... classic-> history + no ads .. enhanced -> ads

kona0197

on Nov 17, 2014

I switched to Chrome on my new computer.

DrJBHL

on Nov 17, 2014

gHacks' Martin Brinkmann reviewed the situation.

"One revenue stream that Mozilla launched just a few days ago monetizes the new tab page of the browser. Most sites on the web reported that "ads are coming to Firefox" and while that is technically true, most sites blew this way out of proportion.

Here are the facts:

Sponsored tiles are shown on Firefox's tab page if the browsing history gets deleted or on first start. Those get replaced by user sites automatically while the browser is being used.

Some companies and sites may deliver enhanced tiles which simply replaces the thumbnail screenshot of a site a user visited in Firefox with a company selected one.

Sponsored tiles are highlighted and clearly identifiable.

The feature can be turned off by switching from Enhanced to Classic or Blank, or by changing what is displayed on the New Tab Page.

Mozilla won't share personal information with publishers. All information shared with publishers are aggregated.

With that said, it is hurting Mozilla's reputation plenty. If you read the comments on sites that report about ads in Firefox, take Cnet for example, you will notice that the majority are negative. This is not that uncommon on the Internet and it is likely that at least some of the users are venting their frustration but won't really do anything about it.

The problem is that Mozilla is playing with the organization's reputation because of this. While it may earn revenue from the new format it may damage its reputation because of it and that's why it may not be worth it in the long run." gHacks

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