Mozilla to Sell Ads in Firefox ⇥ adage.com

Alex Kantrowitz, Advertising Age:

The ads will appear within the tiles of Firefox’s new tabs page, which will also begin to suggest pre-packaged content for first time users. Mozilla is calling the new initiative “Directory Tiles.”

[…]

Mozilla is a non-profit, so the move to sell ads may seem odd. It also launched a browser But the company makes 97% of its revenue from search and it’s looking to diversify that revenue. [sic]

Given that Mozilla’s $300 million per year deal with Google expires later this year, Mozilla’s move to diversify its revenue makes sense; likewise, in the context of Firefox blocking third-party cookies by default, it’s clear that the Mozilla Foundation isn’t on Google’s good side. Despite this, the inclusion of ads in a desktop piece of software still feels gross. Perhaps Mozilla will take the Opera route in the future and offer a paid version of Firefox.