Firefox to show (more) ads on the new page tab | Hacker News Reader

Firefox to show (more) ads on the new page tab

lifewire.com

2 pointsaflukasz8 comments

Apparently, I just got hit by those all of a sudden. Sponsored tiles just next to the tiles with my frequently viewed sites, looking just as them, just with "sponsored" tag. That was surprising to me, because I've never saw those before, and I'm using FF for years now.

I've got Adidas, Groupon and AliExpress. Yes, I could dismiss them, each needed separate two-click interaction with the interface.

So... looks like some new user experience for Firefox users?

The advertisement must be part of an internal effort to make Firefox look more native on OSes like MacOS and Windows =)

Looks like I chose the right year to keep using Chromium, I guess. Though I am pretty certain the Firefox forks will start to crop up without any ads in them.

Firefox started putting crap into the new tab page years ago, but there is a configuration option to make the new tab page blank. Are they removing that?

Well, in another comment, markx2 suggested how to change new tab UI to blank page. Which I can confirm is still present and kind of works, but... that way you are removing all the tiles, including your actually frequently used pages, so I wouldn't exactly call it "removal of sponsored tiles".

Well, true. If you find those tiles useful then that would be a loss. How much of one, though? Are they worth putting up with ads for?

> now Mozilla is trying to find a way to keep ads alive but also maintain your privacy.

No, Mozilla is trying to find a way to use personal information about you to target and track advertising while not being too upsetting to users.

Just keeping ads in a privacy-preserving way is easy. It's the targeting and performance-measuring they want, and that's a very hard nut to crack.

Non-story

Article dated July 16, 2024

In the latest Firefox (and it has been this way forever)

Settings > Home > New tabs > Blank Page.

Dated July 16, but without submissions here, in any form, I believe.

I must say that I'm using FF for years now, and only saw such ads today for the first time ever. I wonder why.

Anyway, this skewed my perception and I've submitted this as "Firefox to show ads on the new page tab". But now I see that this is more like "more ads", and this article and linked PR announcement is about adding new deals made by Mozilla for this specific ads distribution channel, but said channel itself, to my surprise, is not new.

I will fix the title accordingly.

Thanks for the settings tip.

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