Mozilla is not backing out of its plans of selling sponsored content on its "new tab" view on Firefox, but the not-for-profit firm promises its flagship web browser will not become a "mess of logos."
Back in February, Mozilla introduced Directory Tiles at the annual Interactive Advertising Bureau where the project was met with considerable backlash. For existing Firefox users, the new tab contains tiles that represent the websites that users frequently visit. However, for every first-time Firefox user, the new tab is empty.
Mozilla now wants to take advantage of the new-user experience by pre-populating the new tab with websites that it thinks users will find "useful or interesting," including tiles based on the user's location, popular tiles and tiles that are paid for by advertisers. These tiles will stay on the new tab for 30 days until the user actively manages them.
"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," writes Mozilla's vice president of Firefox Johnathan Nightingale.
Nightingale says that Mozilla will continue to conduct testing on its pre-release channels to identify which layouts and websites for the new tab page will be most "useful" to users. He also clarifies that the goal of testing is "not about revenue" but to understand what users like and what they ignore. However, Nightingale does not stop short of saying that there will be no sponsored tiles in the future.
"Sponsorship would be the next stage once we are confident that we can deliver user value," he says.
It's not surprising why Mozilla is looking to diversify its monetization efforts. Majority of the company's 2012 revenue, or 97.9% of the total figure, comes from its partnership with search engines, particularly Google, which pays Mozilla a portion of its earnings from search advertisements.
Rival browser Opera has been using the same advertising model for its new tab pages for years. However, Mozilla has long touted privacy and user control as its driving principles. For years, the independent Internet firm has been at odds with the advertising industry, until the IAB meeting in February, because of its negative stance about advertisers' unwillingness to honor the 'Do Not Track' setting on web browsers implemented by users who do not want to have websites track their activities, despite advertisers' claims that tracking will allow them to provide more personalized ads.
"The problem, however, is that this doesn't really fit into Mozilla's brand image. It's supposed to be an independent, mission-driven organization. Once it starts taking money from big brands, it will be harder to maintain this image," opines Frederic Lardinois of TechCrunch.
As of now, no sponsored tiles are shown on Firefox.
