Mozilla will soon start accepting advertisements in its Firefox internet browser under its new Directory Tiles initiative after resisting them for several years.
Mozilla is trying to win back its lost user-base by personalizing the overall experience and also revealed plans to embrace ads within the Firefox internet browser. In an official blog post Tuesday, the company said that it will sell ads through a newly proposed Directory Tiles initiative. The company's latest approach, which has finally come after years of resistance, will display ads in nine rectangle tiles in a new tab.
When a first time user opens a new tab in the Firefox browser, he or she will see nine blank tiles across the page. These tiles will fill over time with most-visited and recently visited websites. Now, with the company's plans to sell ads, these tiles will show most popular sites by location and also include "sponsored content."
"We are excited about Directory Tiles because it has inherent value to our users, it aligns with our vision of a better Internet through trust and transparency, and it helps Mozilla become more diversified and sustainable as a project," VP of content services, Darren Herman, wrote in the company's blog post, Tuesday.
"While we have not worked out the entire product roadmap, we are beginning to talk to content partners about the opportunity, and plan to start showing Directory Tiles to new Firefox users as soon as we have the user experience right."
It is unclear when the final integration will be available to all users as the company is yet to bag sufficient deals to debut the feature.
Mozilla rolled out its latest Firefox 27 earlier this month with an update to Firefox Social API, which lets users run more than one service at a time and also receive notifications from multiple integrated services. It also includes support for Delicious, web 2.0 social bookmarking tool.
The company changed its browser's logo as a part of an update to the browser in August last year. It added built-in share button, mixed content blocking and more.
The decision to sell ads in the browser was announced Tuesday at Darren Hermanthe Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) annual leadership conference in Palm Springs, California. This move puts Firefox at par with other browsers like the Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.
