Mozilla expands advertising experiment to many more Firefox users

Mozilla is beginning a broader second phase of an experiment to show ads to Firefox users, a move that ultimately could help reduce the organization's reliance on revenue from Google.

The first phase of its program, called directory tiles, gave Mozilla the option to show ads or promoted content in a grid of thumbnail images that appear when a user opens a new browser tab, but it's offered only to new Firefox users. Enhanced tiles, though, are for existing Firefox users. The new feature gives publishers an opportunity to replace a thumbnail users already would see with one that's potentially more engaging, said Darren Herman, Mozilla's vice president of content services.

The program could give Mozilla more breathing room. Its share of desktop browser usage is slipping, and its presence in mobile browsing is miniscule, so Mozilla needs new levers to push its agenda. The sponsored tiles could mean more money for Mozilla and a new way to influence how advertisers use the personal data of those who see and click on ads.

The directory tiles are links Mozilla picks on its own, but the enhanced tiles modify links that the user already would see. Instead of seeing an automatically generated thumbnail image that might represent the site poorly -- a login screen, for example -- an enhanced tile would show imagery that looks and works better.

"We're looking at logos, images, or anything related to that site," Herman said.

Showing ads and promoting sites is a significant departure for Mozilla. Today, the nonprofit organization gets the vast majority of its money from Google when Firefox users send the search engine traffic that results in revenue from search ads. The ads would mean a new, potentially much broader source of revenue, though.

"We do see it as an opportunity for us to recognize the value we're bringing to all constituents in the market," Herman said -- in other words, to get paid for Firefox's influence over what people see. "Directory tiles and enhanced tiles are an opportunity to work with marketers and content owners to help them distribute their content."

More revenue doesn't hurt, but Mozilla has bigger ambitions: it hopes the tiles program will revive its influence in the advertising world. The company has had fraught relations with advertisers in the last two years due to its push for a Do Not Track standard that lets people inform Web publishers and advertisers when they don't want their online behavior tracked. Mozilla hopes its tiles program ultimately will "make the Internet healthier," Herman said.

"We're showing the world you can get into the advertising ecosystem, building trust, transparency, and user control into those experiences," he said. "Forty-three billion dollars are spent in online ads every year. The opportunity for us is to clean the Web up, to make it healthier...We have to participate. We can't just sit on the sidelines telling people what to do."

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Mozilla expands advertising experiment to many more Firefox users