Mozilla releases first nightly builds of Firefox with ‘ad tiles’

Mozilla has added “ad tiles” to the browser’s home screen in the latest builds of the Firefox nightlies. Websites can ‘buy’ a tile for a fee, but it is possible to disable the ads entirely.

When starting the nightly, the opening screen where the tiles are shown by default shows a message that briefly explains the supposed usefulness of the tiles. Mozilla also says that the ad tiles are covered by its privacy policy and that there is an option to disable the tiles entirely. The user will then be presented with a blank screen when opening the browser or a tab, or the ‘classic’ tile view with frequently visited websites.

Mozilla calls the ad tiles, where the text ‘sponsored’ is shown, useful for users who open Firefox for the first time and therefore have not yet built a list of recently visited websites. In addition, the browser builder says it sees the tiles as a new way to bring in money. Mozilla is still largely dependent on revenue from Google.

According to Mozilla, no tracking will be applied if the user selects a sponsored tile, but the browser builder will inform advertisers about how many times a particular tile has been clicked. After approximately 30 days, an ad tile is exchanged for a new one. The ad tiles will show up in Firefox 34 at the earliest, which is scheduled for November.