Mozilla launches browser ads for Firefox

Mozilla just rolled out the latest feature for its Firefox nightly build. The new-browser tab now sports sponsored tiles, which act as a quick way to access a combination of ads and popular content.

You can remove sites from the tab and additional sponsored tiles will pop into view. The idea here is to provide browser users with suggested content right away if they’ve never used Firefox before. So instead of seeing blank tiles before they build up enough browser history for content to be displayed, content is shown automatically, and some of that content is sponsored.

When the Directory Tiles program was first announced back in February, it was pitched as a way to provide value for first-time users. The ads apparently don’t include tracking technology, but stats such as views and click-throughs will be provided to companies that sign up for the program.

In case you’re not familiar, Firefox nightly builds are meant for developers who want to help Mozilla test out new features. And as you might suspect from its name, it’s updated every evening. This version will hit the stable Firefox release in November. Back in July, VentureBeat covered Mozilla’s plans to include an integrated development environment for Firefox OS in new releases of the web browser.

Via: The Next Web.