Firefox New-tab Page won't be Plastered with Logos

Mozilla is updating a plan to put ads on the windows that show when Firefox users launch a new browser tab, reassuring users that they won't lose control or be overwhelmed with ads. Mozilla announced the Firefox new-tab page advertisements idea in February, saying it wanted to feature "directory tiles" that would be useful to users. The plan has caused some worries, though.

"A lot of our community found the language hard to decipher, and worried that we were going to turn Firefox into a mess of logos sold to the highest bidder; without user control, without user benefit," said Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's vice president of Firefox, in a blog post. "That's not going to happen. That's not who we are at Mozilla."

But the new-tab page still could carry sponsored content from "hand-picked partners," and Mozilla plans to experiment with that in the future. Mozilla hadn't actually shown any ads thus far, said Darren Herman, vice president of content services, in a statement. "None of the tiles are sponsored at this time because the goal of initial experiments is to measure user interest and value of recommended content. Sponsorship would be the next stage once we are confident that we can deliver user value."