Firefox considers bringing multi-language news and sponsored stories to New Tab Page

It looks like Mozilla is collecting feedback on a potential change to Firefox’s New Tab Page. A screenshot of a survey posted on the Firefox subreddit is rubbing some people the wrong way.

The OP lives in Germany but keeps their browser set to English, and Mozilla wanted to know which language they would prefer for news and ads. As you can see in the screenshot of the survey page below, the mockup mixes English articles from outlets like the BBC with German sponsored posts.

In the prompt, Mozilla says it is “considering showing articles (including some clearly marked sponsored content) on your Firefox New Tab page” to see what users prefer. This follows the team’s rollout of Firefox v158 with New Tab wallpaper improvements and a large batch of fixes in the Firefox v159 beta.

Naturally, plenty of longtime fans hate the idea of seeing more promos when they open the app. One commenter said that “immediately loading slop on app startup or new tab is not a tradeoff I’m willing to make,” while others worried Firefox might turn into Microsoft Edge.

Still, other users pointed out that maintaining an independent browser engine costs real money, and Mozilla cannot rely on Google search royalties forever.

In fact, we just saw the company launch Firefox Enterprise to challenge Chrome and Edge. So expanding localized ads makes more sense than only relying on funding from Google’s Search deal.

A Mozilla front-end engineer who works on the New Tab page also jumped into the thread to calm everyone down. They pointed out that “you are in control of ads on your new tab page” and shared a guide on how Firefox manages sponsored stories.

According to Mozilla’s breakdown of its privacy-focused ad system, the browser routes ad requests through its own proxy servers to hide your real IP address and never touches your browsing history.

That said, there’s no guarantee that the company will follow through with the change. But even it it does, there’s no ETA for when the update will roll out.

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