Firefox Is Now Adding Ads to Their New Tab
Even Firefox, one of the pioneers of pop-up blocking and privacy modes, has come to embrace sponsored content. So far, the alternative web browser has limited ads to some paid recommendations for its read-it-later service called Pocket.
So, while there's some advertising on one of the more privacy-minded major browsers out there, they will only show up on the new tab as Pocket suggestions, at least for now.
The feature has already showed up on the latest nightly, and beta builds of Firefox meant as a preview platform for developers, which means that the ads would likely start showing up on updated Firefox browsers as soon as version 60 rolls out this month, according to The Register.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Mozilla is calling this experiment with paid Pocket ads their "Privacy-Conscious Approach" to sponsored content, as Pocket founder Nate Weiner explained in a blog post on Mozilla's website last week.
"It's important for quality content like this to thrive—and a critical way it's funded is through advertising," Weiner admitted. He also added that the way advertising done as it is right now, with the use of click trackers and intrusive ads, is just not the proper way to go about it.
"We believe the Internet can do better. So earlier this year, we started to explore a new model and showed an occasional sponsored story in Pocket's recommendation section on Firefox New Tab," he explained, adding that Firefox users can expect to see the new links on their browser this month of May.
The way Mozilla and Pocket are going about it, all user personalization goes on inside the installed Firefox browser on the user's PC or device — none of it will be shared or made available for ad targeting for advertisers.
Not everyone may like the idea of ads on their new tab screens, so Mozilla is also offering users the option to disable it entirely if they so choose. Weiner also assured users that the content the sponsored links will lead to must be quality, valuable content, unlike so-called "clickbait" articles that are common in other advertising platforms.
This will not be the user targeted ads that Facebook and Google are selling to advertisers based on all the user information they have pulled from their users, as The Verge pointed out. That means that advertisers would likely pay less for Mozilla's ad service, but the non-profit seems to be fine with that.
"We are indeed able to create personalized sponsored content that provides value to users without jeopardizing their privacy," Weiner added to his blog post, adding that they are excited about this opportunity to demonstrate an ad model that hopefully makes the Internet a better online space for everyone.
