Bad luck, n00bs: Mozilla to splurge ADS inside empty Firefox tiles The Mozilla Corporation has announced that it will soon offer the chance to run advertising in its browser. Ads will appear in what the foundation is calling “Directory Tiles” that appear when users summon a new Tab into existence. Explained as something “designed to improve the first-time-with-Firefox experience”, nine …
"Explained as something “designed to improve the first-time-with-Firefox experience”, nine Directory Tiles will appear in a grid on each new Tab. Today, all but one of the Tiles is blank."
<looks at a new FF tab>I have nine tiles, all of them contain links to my most-frequented sites. So: all nine tiles are already there, and none of them are blank.
I have no idea what this thing called "tiles" is. Is it something I disabled - and forgot - years ago? Or is it something they are going to introduce (and bypass AdBlock+ etc.)? Is this about the "Tile Tabs" add-on that Google has just found for me and that I have no intention to install anyway? That would be a relief...
This is the 9 "tiles" that appear when you open a new tab.
When you install a fresh copy of Firefox on a new machine, it has no history of the sites you've visited, so they fill those tiles with sponsored links instead. Once you start visiting real sites, those sponsored sites will start disappearing.
At that point AdBlock + isn't installed and it wouldn't help anyway, because these aren't "ads" in that sense of the word.
> This is the 9 "tiles" that appear when you open a new tab.
I just get an empty window... I'll assume that I have not installed FF for a while then, just upgraded it while keeping personal configurations. The only important thing (to me) is that this is not some AdBlock-circumventing conspiracy.
You may find the most visited tiles useless but I find them very useful. You can also pin them in place on the new tab. When I open a new tab they provide links to six important sites I have pinned (El Reg and a bunch of sys admin stuff mostly) and three frequently visited sites. Very handy indeed.
Fortunately they will continue to do so since I am not a new user and any new install of Firefox is quickly synced with my others.
I use those tiles every day, they're quicker than delving into my labyrinthine bookmarks menu for my most visited sites.
I'm not overly keen on ads built into the browser. However, since they'll only appear briefly to first time users I'm not going to complain. I use FireFox every day and Mozilla have never asked me for a penny.
"Perhaps you should re-organise your bookmarks a bit more coherently, then?"
They're organised coherently into categories so that I can always find something no matter how obscure. However, this means that some of my most visited sites are buried 3 levels deep in the bookmarks menu. It's easier to have them as tiles on the new tab page so that they're one click away. Much the same as my programs menu is well organised but my most used applications get a shortcut on the desktop.
That folder displays most visited pages by view count which is not the same thing as a most visited website. For example, an internet forum might be one of my most visited websites but the one page that shows up in the 'most visited' bookmarks folder is the 'post successful' page. That's not particularly helpful.
Then there's the actual ease of use:
Bookmarks > Most visited > Website
New Tab > Website
I'm not expecting you to have some sort of epiphany about the tiles on the new tab page. Everyone has a preferred workflow and there's nothing wrong with that. A little less condescension would be nice though.
"They're organised coherently into categories so that I can always find something no matter how obscure. However, this means that some of my most visited sites are buried 3 levels deep in the bookmarks menu."
Do you utilize the Bookmarks Toolbar on your browser page? I have folders created there by subject matter, then bookmarks within. For the sites I visit every day there is a separate folder, and with just two clicks I can open a tab for every site within. Otherwise it's an incredibly easy way to find individual bookmarks.
Because upgrading will surely let them know you are a new user? Do you often find all your preferences, history and bookmarks are deleted when upgrading Firefox?
Not upgrading a browser must be one of the most idiotic things to do, given each new release - from any of the big three browsers - is awash with security updates.
Do you often find all your preferences, history and bookmarks are deleted when upgrading Firefox?
No, but I do find a bunch of stuff labelled "no longer supported" or plain ignored. Just because there's a value in the prefs.js file doesn't require the browser to pay any heed to it.
Not upgrading a browser must be one of the most idiotic things to do, given each new release - from any of the big three browsers - is awash with security updates.
Blindly upgrading any piece of software just because there's a new one is idiotic. New releases may have security fixes that I care about, but they may also have performance issues, bugs, and functional regressions that I care about more. I've lost track of the number of times I've upgraded FF or Thunderbird, only to have a "why the fsck did they do that" moment, followed by a downgrade & restore of all configuration. I'm generally several versions of FF behind the bleeding edge.
I am still on FF 22.0 since the new version forces you to have a tab bar, even for one single useless tab. Yes, I know you can get an addon for that, but I can also just skip upgrading.
I think that the real Firefox developers have left the house. The only "developers" left are the resume-padding "look ma! imma firefox developer!!" losers. They remove features because it's beyond their ability to add new ones. How do you explain things like removing working useful features like the tabs preferences for absolutely no reason?
"I am still on FF 22.0 since the new version forces you to have a tab bar, even for one single useless tab. Yes, I know you can get an addon for that, but I can also just skip upgrading..."
I'm on v25, and I'd love to get rid of that useless-assed single tab. What add-on is that, and where can I find it?
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