
Help Test Changes to New Tab in Firefox Beta - ericras
https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/05/21/help-test-changes-to-new-tab-in-firefox-beta/
======
ape4
It seems the ads will be very low key. And optional. Your history isn't sent
to them. So I am ok with it.

~~~
sarciszewski
I'm not.

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userbinator
All the doublespeak is disturbing. The original post[1] about this
(mis)feature was even worse though.

 _we started working to improve digital advertising experiences for the Web._

"we started working to _turn Firefox into adware_ "

 _to show it is possible to deliver personalization_

"to show it is possible to deliver _advertisements_ "

 _However, it’s important to understand that no tracking is involved in
delivering Tiles._

So all the content was downloaded at the same time as Firefox itself, and
showing them doesn't make any requests to external servers...?

[1]
[https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publish...](https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publisher-
transformation-with-users-at-the-center/)

(The first comment there sums up my thoughts exactly. If I open a text editor,
word processor, image editor, or other application I expect to see a blank
slate, not ads.)

~~~
rockdoe
_So all the content was downloaded at the same time as Firefox itself, and
showing them doesn 't make any requests to external servers...?_

Not necessarily at the same time as the download of the browser, but yes, the
tile matching is done on the client side so the history doesn't leak out.

Imagine that Adsense worked this way: instead of tracking you through cookies
everywhere, each site sends a list of advertisers. The browser then inspects
that lists, matches locally against your history, and picks an ad to show.

This gives advertisers targeting without invading user privacy. I think that's
Mozilla's goal here.

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Grue3
I'm glad I have the new tab page completely blank. I hope they don't remove
that option.

~~~
sayhello
Engineer on the Tiles team here.

One of our core tenets is "user agency", or putting the user in control. The
user should always have the choice. That option will not go away.

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Dirlewanger
Well...they gotta make money somehow.

~~~
sayhello
Engineer on the Tiles team here.

Revenue is not our primary objective. We really want to change how the
industry works. At the moment, revenue is our way to say that we can make
something that is viable and will work for everyone else.

It is something that is hard to condense into blog posts, because the topic is
so touchy. That said, our primary goal is really to make a big change and to
prove that it can be viable for others.

We're rethinking how digital advertising works. It is what makes the internet
free for everyone. We're hoping to make a system that is effective, yet less
annoying for users, and does not violate their right to privacy.

More on my reply on another thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9588451](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9588451)

~~~
pdkl95
> Revenue is not our primary objective.

This still creates an incentive to meet the needs of the advertisers (instead
of the users) or you risk losing your new source of revenue. This conflict of
interest in not theoretical - titling a blog post[1] "Providing a Valuable
Platform for Advertisers, Content Publishers, and Users" already suggests
where your priorities are. There is no middle ground here - users and
advertisers have conflicting requirements.

> We really want to change how the industry works.

You are doing no such thing, and you (Mozilla/Firefox) don't have anywhere
near the influence you would need to accomplish such a thing. Giving the ad
industry a new place to put ads is not going to get them to stop (or even slow
down) their current methods; you're just expanding the surface area they can
utilize.

At _best_ , the strategy at Mozilla appear to be appeasement, Neville
Chamberlain style. Assuring us th "it is _privacy_ for our time" further
demonstrates who you really work for.

[1]
[https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2015/05/21/providi...](https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2015/05/21/providing-
a-valuable-platform-for-advertisers-content-publishers-and-users/)

[2] and DRM

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tormeh
I notice that I don't really care about Firefox anymore. Servo will probably
be really cool, but until then I'm not excited.

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sarciszewski

        It’s been 18 months since we started working to improve digital 
        advertising experiences for the Web.
    

Oh hell no. Can I get Iceweasel to compile on Windows?

~~~
TheLoneWolfling
Try Pale Moon.

