After notifying Nightly users about the changes to New Tab Page through a tour, Mozilla has announced today that it will show suggested tiles (appear based on user interests) on New Tab Page to Firefox beta (coming next week, could be version 39) users and later, they will appear to users on release channel. Promoted or sponsored tiles are clearly labeled as such (check the screenshot below).
READ: Mozilla’s Controversial Sponsored Tiles Now Appearing on Nightly’s New Tab Page
“So what happens next? Suggested Tiles will be going to Beta soon and then live later in the summer. Initially, users will first see “Affiliate” Tiles advertisements for other Mozilla causes and Firefox products before Suggested Tiles from our content partners appear. Note that we’ll be rolling out the product in phases starting first with Firefox users in the US.”
Removing Suggested Tiles from Firefox New Tab Page
1. Click on Gear icon, uncheck ‘include suggested sites’.
Tip: To get rid of tiles completely from New Tab page, select ‘Show blank page’ in the ‘New tab controls’ menu.
Firefox 33.1 offers DuckDuckGo Search Engine option, adds Enhanced Tiles to the New Tab Page
Luckily, non-profit Mozilla is giving users a way to opt-out of suggested tiles from being displayed to them.
Opting-out method
Turn on Do Not Track in browser and forget about sponsored aka suggested tiles
1. Enable ‘Do Not Track’ in Firefox browser: Options > Privacy, check ‘Tell Sites that I do not want to be tracked’.
“if you set DNT=1, it is possible that you may not be receiving Suggested Tiles. You can very simply enable them on the new tab page with the cogwheel. We made the decision to opt users out of all sponsored Tiles experiences if they have DNT=1 quite early on, as we believe that most DNT early adopters are seeking to opt out of all advertising experiences. However, it’s important to understand that no tracking is involved in delivering Tiles. “
Thank You! Glad to hear it’s that easy. Basically, I’ve already opted out by using DNT and I use Startpage as my home page instead of the New Tab Page. I can deal with easy. ;)
Thank you. I found the suggested tabs from Firefox to be useless and distracting. It felt like a mindless ploy to make money.