Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox web browser, drew the ire of customers over the weekend as it announced a plan to place “sponsored tabs” directly into its software. In other words, Firefox – a free product distributed by Mozilla, which is a non-profit company – will now be driven by advertisements.

According to a report from The Independent, the advertisements will only appear when users open a fresh tab, and will largely be made up of recommendations or suggestions based on each individual user’s browsing history. For new users, the tabs will be populated with “pre-packaged” advertising content, since Mozilla won’t have had the opportunity to monitor any browsing.

Previously, Mozilla has been a company known for supporting privacy rights and paying close attention to user feedback. The company has even given its customers the option to block tracking cookies, a move that probably cost Firefox its fair share of advertising dollars. Now, however, it looks like Mozilla needs to find a way to better monetize its browser software. More and more people are ditching Firefox in favor of Google Chrome or Microsoft Internet Explorer – browsers with huge, wealthy companies behind them. If Firefox is going to compete, then Mozilla needs to find some resources, and sponsored tabs may just be the best way of doing so.

Despite all of this, Mozilla Vice President Johnathan Nightingale assured customers that Firefox would not become a buggy “mess of logos sold to the highest bidder.” On the contrary, Nightingale said that his company is going to experiment thoroughly with sponsored tabs before implementing them across all versions of Firefox, and that users will have options and benefits to choose from with the new service. Sponsored tabs will not, it seems, be simply invasive advertising, but a way to help orient users toward websites that might interest them.