Firefox users have expressed surprise, disgust and anger at the appearance of banner ads on new tabs in the browser. An advertisement appeared recently inviting users to make a booking via Booking.com.<\/b>
\nFirefox users have expressed surprise, disgust and anger at the appearance of banner ads on new tabs in the browser. An advertisement appeared recently inviting users to make a booking via Booking.com.
The ad appears at the bottom of the new tab page, and makes use of Firefox’s Snippet feature. Mozilla has explained that the „snippet was an experiment“, insisting no user data has been shared with third parties. If you’re concerned, however — or just don’t want to see even more ads — you can disable them.
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As noted by VentureBeat, at least two versions of the ad have been spotted in the wild; the first reads: „Ready to schedule that next family reunion? Here’s a thank you from Firefox. Book your next hotel stay on Booking.com today and get a free $20 Amazon gift card. Happy Holidays from Firefox! (Restrictions apply)“. The second reads: „For the holidays, we got you a little something just for using Firefox! Book your next hotel stay on Booking.com today and get a free $20 Amazon gift card. Happy Holidays from Firefox! (Restrictions apply)“.
The Mozilla wiki explains that the Snippet Service „is intended to assemble and deliver content snippets to the about:home page in Firefox“ — people would not have expected it to be used for advertising of any sort.
But Mozilla does not see it as an ad in this instance. Rather the organization says:
If you would like to avoid being subjected to similar experiments in the future, use the following steps:<\/p>\n