New Tab page in Firefox
Revision Information
- Revision id: 101902
- Created:
- Creator: Joni
- Comment: added note for l10N; suggested sites will be in other locales in 41
- Reviewed: Yes
- Reviewed:
- Reviewed by: heyjoni
- Is approved? Yes
- Is current revision? No
- Ready for localization: Yes
- Readied for localization:
- Readied for localization by: heyjoni
Revision Source
Revision Content
If enabled, Firefox displays website links as thumbnails (miniaturized images) or logos on the New Tab page. These images are called Tiles. Depending on your New Tab settings, these Tiles include recently visited or frequently visited sites, along with suggested sites and sponsored content.
Table of Contents
Top sites
Top sites are chosen based on the most frequently and recently visited sites in your browsing history ("frecency").
Suggested sites
Firefox suggests sites of interest based on categories it matches to your browsing history. An interest category is defined by a “bucket” of URLs that are relevant to the category - a minimum of five URLs, and potentially more. Firefox knows these categories and downloads all possible Tiles for your location and geography, and determines if it sees a match between one of the URLs in a category and one of the user’s 100 most frecently (frequent and recent) visited sites. If it does, it will display the suggestion.
These sites will be labelled either Suggested or Sponsored:
- Suggested: These includes sites promoted by Mozilla with information about its products and mission, or Mozilla-promoted sites based on interest categories in your region or language.
- Sponsored: These sites are promoted by a Mozilla partner and are labeled Sponsored.
Getting started
If you are using Firefox for the first time, the New Tab page will display useful and interesting content, including sites we consider important to the Mozilla mission, and sponsored sites from commercial partners. They are eventually replaced by sites from your history as you continue to use Firefox.
What data is being collected and why?
To deliver content, Firefox downloads all possible Tiles for your location and/or language and determines for itself what to display. Data is only collected to report on the performance of Tiles in Firefox. No data is collected to deliver the New Tab experience.
To report on the performance of these Tiles, Firefox reports back to Mozilla:
- Geo/Locale
- How many times a Tile is:
- Displayed
- Pinned
- Clicked on
- Blocked
The data is stored on a restricted access server for a maximum of 7 days, and then the IP address (the only data that would associate the Tile with an individual) is removed.
Where does my data go/get shared?
Data is transmitted directly to Mozilla and only aggregate data is stored on Mozilla servers. Mozilla is sharing aggregate numbers with partners on the number of impressions, clicks, pins, and hides their own content received. The little data that suggested sites reports goes to a restricted access server located in the USA. This data is stripped of IP addresses within 7 days, meaning that no one can be identified. We retain this data for a maximum of 13 months.
Any data that is to be shared with a partner is this aggregated data on the number of impressions, clicks, pins, and hides their own content received.
Does Do Not Track (DNT) work on New Tab?
Tiles are not “tracking” users (i.e. creating a longitudinal profile of a user). Turn off suggested sites instead by clicking the cog icon and removing the check mark next to Include suggested sites or selecting to remove Tiles completely. (See Customize items on your Firefox New Tab page).
Will ad blockers block Tiles?
Suggested Tiles will not be blocked by ad blockers because they don't use third party cookies or trackers. Turn off suggested sites instead by clicking the cog icon and removing the check mark next to Include suggested sites or selecting to remove Tiles completely. (See Customize items on your Firefox New Tab page).
Where/what countries are suggested sites being served?
Enhanced and Directory sites are currently available in the following localized versions of Firefox: English, German, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese and Russian. More versions will be released over time. Suggested sites are available in English starting with Firefox version 40. They will be available in other languages starting in version 41.
Customize New Tab
- To change the New Tab settings, see Customize items on your Firefox New Tab page.
- To customize New Tab, see Customize your Firefox New Tab page.