Mozilla rolls out sponsored link tiles
You'd think that Mozilla, whose Firefox browser is dropping in popularity alongside the now ubiquitous Google Chrome, would be desperate to incorporate new features that allow Firefox to regain its leadership marketshare. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the approach they're taking.Instead, they've added a feature where new pages show sponsored advertisements. From TheNextWeb:
Mozilla has rolled out directory tiles, the company's advertising experiment for its browser's new tab page, to the Firefox Nightly channel. ... News of the non-profit organization's plan to sell ads in Firefox first broke back in February 2014. The Directory Tiles program is designed to "improve the first-time-with-Firefox experience," the company says. Instead of seeing blank tiles when a new Firefox user opens a new tab, Mozilla thought it would be best that they see "content." ... As you use Firefox, the rectangle tiles on the new tab page are populated with the most frequent and recent websites you visit. Since they start as empty (because new users naturally have no browser history), however, Mozilla sees the new tab page as both an opportunity to provide "inherent value" to the user, as well as an opportunity to generate revenue.[Ed. note: this article posted using Chrome.]
Let's say firefox dropped to under 10% market share as a result of this, a substantial drop: Do you think that microsoft or yahoo wouldn't pay a lot of money to be the default search? And do you think google would happily hand over even a small percentage of their search revenue to their competitors? That's the lifeblood of the company, and they take it very seriously.
I wouldn't be surprised if mozilla's revenue dropped next time they renegotiate contracts, but that's okay. They're pulling in over $300m/year revenue and using that to cover a wide range of non-core and unprofitable projects. If worst came to worst, they could spin off all their other efforts and survive on a small fraction of that.
(disclaimer: I don't agree with a lot of their decisions, but I think they'll be fine financially for a long time yet)