Mozilla has added small advertisements to the new tab page of Firefox’s roughest-edged build, the channel dubbed “Nightly” because it is updated each evening. The ads, which Mozilla’s calls “sponsored tiles,” were first discussed by Mozilla in February, but the initiative was criticized by Firefox users. The company, however, defended the in-browser ad project, saying it was important to find other revenue sources besides its long-standing deals with search providers like Google. In May, Mozilla reiterated support for the ads but also promised users that Firefox would not become “a mess of logos.” Mozilla has switched on the sponsored tiles in Firefox Nightly, which is analogous to a pre-alpha edition, and intended primarily for developers and code contributors. Mozilla maintains three more-stable build channels — Aurora, essentially an alpha; Beta; and Release, which is the final production-quality version — but Nightly is where it debuts changes and new features. The Next Web reported on Firefox Nightly’s new tab page advertisements on Thursday. The concept is straight-forward: When new users start Firefox, they will see pre-populated tiles, some of them “sponsored” — in effect advertisements — on the new tab page. For long-time Firefox users, that page, which has room for nine thumbnails, shows the most-frequently-visited websites. Someone new to Firefox, of course, would see nothing. To jump-start the experience, Mozilla will fill the spots with a mix of sponsored and unsponsored tiles. The latter will lead to popular Internet destinations such as Facebook and YouTube. Current users of Firefox Nightly, who have their tiles already filled with sites they often visit, can see the sponsored and unsponsored tiles by deleting the existing ones on their new tab page. Computerworld, which used an updated copy of Firefox Nightly tied to an existing Firefox profile, did just that, and confirmed that the new tab page displayed sponsored tiles. Those tiles led to BBC.com, Booking.com and Wired.com. All three were marked as “SPONSORED” in a smaller font size below the tiles. Non-sponsored tiles also appeared for Facebook; Webmaker.org, a Mozilla project to promote coding and creativity on the Web; Wikipedia; and YouTube. Firefox Nightly is in version 34, which is slated to reach the Release channel on Nov. 25. However, Mozilla has not said when the ads will be inserted into the Aurora channel, and the sponsored tiles could appear in a final edition much later than Firefox 34, or never make it to Release. In May, Jonathan Nightingale, vice president of Firefox, said that Mozilla would experiment with the ads, but did not name a timetable. “We’ll talk about what we learn before anything ships to our release users,” Nightingale promised. Mozilla’s stated purpose for dropping ads in the new tab page — to diversify its sources of revenue — makes sense: In 2012, the last year for which the organization has released financial figures, revenue from its contract with Google accounted for 88% of the Mozilla Foundation’s $311 million income. Royalty payments from Mozilla’s multiple search deals — which makes various search engines the default in Firefox — represented 98% of 2012’s revenue. The most lucrative of those deals, the one with Google, expires in November. Firefox Nightly v. 34 for Windows, OS X and Linux can be downloaded from Mozilla’s website. Related content feature Windows 11: A guide to the updates Here’s what you need to know about the latest updates to Windows 11 as they’re released from Microsoft. Now updated for KB506980 Preview, released on April 23, 2024. By Preston Gralla Apr 25, 2024 59 mins Small and Medium Business Windows 11 Windows feature Windows 10: A guide to the updates Here's what you need to know about each update to the current version of Windows 10 as it's released from Microsoft. Now updated for KB5036979 Preview, released on April 23, 2024. By Preston Gralla Apr 25, 2024 172 mins Small and Medium Business Windows 10 Microsoft opinion The end of non-compete agreements is a tech job earthquake The FTC ruled this week that companies can no longer use non-compete agreements to stop workers from moving from one job to another — and businesses are having fits. By Steven Vaughan-Nichols Apr 25, 2024 5 mins Regulation Government IT Jobs news Meta opens its mixed-reality Horizon OS to other headset makers Lenovo and Asus are among the companies building headsets that run Horizon software. The move expands Meta’s reach in the AR/VR market, while enabling headset vendors to focus on hardware development rather than software. By Matthew Finnegan Apr 24, 2024 6 mins Augmented Reality Google Virtual Reality Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe