{"id":8773,"date":"2015-12-07T12:04:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=8773"},"modified":"2015-12-07T12:04:51","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:04:51","slug":"mozilla-retires-firefoxs-sponsored-tiles-hunts-for-new-revenue-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/12\/07\/mozilla-retires-firefoxs-sponsored-tiles-hunts-for-new-revenue-streams\/","title":{"rendered":"Mozilla retires Firefox\u2019s sponsored tiles, hunts for new revenue streams"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sebastian Anthony<\/a> | Ars Technica<\/a><\/p>\n

Way back in 2014, Firefox rolled out an unpopular feature to its nightly builds: sponsored tiles on its “new tab” page<\/a>. The feature, which was opt-in by default, showed ads that were based on your browsing history. Eventually, after a very long beta testing period, the sponsored tiles were loosed upon all 500 million-or-so Firefox users in May this year.<\/p>\n

Now, just a few months later, the feature is being retired. Sponsored tiles will continue to appear for the next few months while Mozilla “fulfils its commitments” (i.e. clears out ad inventory), but then they’ll be gone entirely. Writing on the official Mozilla blog<\/a>, vice president Darren Herman explains that, “advertising in Firefox could be a great business, but it isn\u2019t the right business for us at this time because we want to focus on core experiences for our users.”<\/p>\n

Later in the blog post, which was probably published on Friday afternoon in an attempt to dodge the news cycle, Herman repeats the refrain that we’ve heard many times over the last few years: “We believe that the advertising ecosystem needs to do better …\u00a0Mozilla will continue to explore ways to bring a better balance to the advertising ecosystem for everyone\u2019s benefit, and to build successful products that respect user privacy and deliver experiences based upon transparency, choice and control.”<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Herman says that Mozilla wants to “reimagine content experiences and content discovery in our products.” As for what these\u00a0reimaginations might look like\u00a0though,\u00a0we have no idea. Firefox did recently launch on iOS<\/a>, however, so that’s something. Instead of sponsored tiles, maybe the new tab page will somehow suggest\u00a0new sites for you to visit, based on your browsing history and category selections? Kind of like a mini in-browser Reddit?.<\/p>\n

Firefox’s targeted sponsored tiles always seemed a little out of place for a browser that is essentially predicated on free, libertarian ideals. You can’t exactly blame Mozilla for trying, though.\u00a0Since its inception, Mozilla has been entirely reliant on revenues from search engines. For years, Google paid Mozilla hundreds of millions of dollars to be Firefox’s default search engine. In recent years, Mozilla has diversified its search engine defaults\u2014Yahoo is now the default in the US, Yandex in Russia, and Baidu in China\u2014but according to its 2014 financial report, 98 percent of its revenue<\/a> still came from these search engine deals. If something dramatic causes those deals to fall through, Mozilla does ideally need another way of making money.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, just like Wikipedia, Mozilla’s annual donation drive is currently live: when you open up Firefox, you’ll be greeted with a screen that asks you for a donation. If you want to donate money, but the plea doesn’t appear in your browser, you can donate directly on the Mozilla website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sebastian Anthony | Ars Technica Way back in 2014, Firefox rolled out an unpopular feature to its nightly builds: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[369,717,906],"class_list":["post-8773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software","tag-firefox","tag-mozilla","tag-revenue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-2hv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7876,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/03\/24\/fully-patched-versions-of-firefox-chrome-ie-11-and-safari-exploited-at-pwn2own-hacking-competition\/","url_meta":{"origin":8773,"position":0},"title":"Fully patched versions of Firefox, Chrome, IE 11 and Safari exploited at Pwn2Own hacking competition","author":"NCCT","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As in years past, the latest patched versions of the most popular web browsers around stood little chance against those competing in the annual Pwn2Own hacking competition. The usual suspects \u2013 Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer \u2013 all went down during the two-day competition, earning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/V99skqmTyiY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6821,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/11\/13\/mozilla-foundation-celebrates-a-decade-of-firefox-with-new-release\/","url_meta":{"origin":8773,"position":1},"title":"Mozilla Foundation celebrates a decade of Firefox with new release","author":"NCCT","date":"November 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Mozilla\u2019s Firefox web browser turned 10 years old on November 9 and to celebrate the occasion, the foundation is rolling out a handful of new products and programs. Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that\u2019s said to be faster than ever. It includes the option to use DuckDuckGo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Software"","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3042,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/26\/mozilla-experimenting-with-firefox-api-for-content-personalization\/","url_meta":{"origin":8773,"position":2},"title":"Mozilla experimenting with Firefox API for content personalization","author":"NCCT","date":"July 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Mozilla is experimenting with an interesting personalization experience, suggesting a new Firefox API that would collect browser activity and provide it to websites so that they could prioritize content based on your interests. For example, if you've been reading a lot about cars recently around the internet, you could provide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Software"","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7954,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/04\/03\/firefox-37-supports-easier-encryption-option-than-https\/","url_meta":{"origin":8773,"position":3},"title":"Firefox 37 supports easier encryption option than HTTPS","author":"NCCT","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest version of Firefox has a new security feature that aims to put a band-aid over unencrypted website connections. Firefox 37 rolled out earlier this week with support for opportunistic encryption, or OE. You can consider OE sort of halfway point between no encryption (known as clear text) and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Software"","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3204,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/08\/19\/chrome-challenges-firefox-may-become-no-2-browser\/","url_meta":{"origin":8773,"position":4},"title":"Chrome challenges Firefox, may become No. 2 browser","author":"NCCT","date":"August 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Mozilla's Firefox browser has lost more than 11 percent of its user share in the last two months, giving Google's Chrome another shot at replacing it as the world's No. 2 browser, according to new data. Statistics from Web measurement company Net Applications illustrated a rapid decline in Firefox and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Software"","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5801,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/06\/18\/where-does-troubled-mozilla-go-from-here\/","url_meta":{"origin":8773,"position":5},"title":"Where does troubled Mozilla go from here?","author":"NCCT","date":"June 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Once upon a time, it was simple. Mozilla, thanks to its open source web browser Firefox, was the feisty David to Microsoft's Internet Explorer Goliath. Under the technical leadership of Brendan Eich, Mozilla co-founder and creator of JavaScript, Firefox became a force to be reckoned with in web browsing at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Software"","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/mozilla-firefox-620x349.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/mozilla-firefox-620x349.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/mozilla-firefox-620x349.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}