The "everyone does it - we have to follow suit" argument isn't really viable, is it?

Of course not. But It does sound even less dramatic when the title here is so blatantly alarmist though...

Notice i never said it should be done, just pointed it is not "putting ads in the browser" as the title cries

All right, but it truly is putting ads in the browser. A new tab is "in the browser" - a "sponsored tile" is an ad.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. See Gooogle, they started with the user in mind, and now they became so business oriented that they killed even Reader.

Veering wildly off topic, but I haven't heard much from the jilted Google Reader crowd for a while. Have they found something new, or are we now living in a post-RSS world?

Migrated to feedly without any issues at all. Still using RSS happily.

I'm using it too but still not able to find a Google Reader Play alternative that suggests new post based on your reading history. Sometimes suggested amazing posts.

Usually those sites are related to the browser such as browser extensions page or support resources. Directory Tiles will display "sponsored content." This is clearly different from the browsers that I use.

Yes? Reset my Safari gives the following stock tiles:

* Apple homepage

* iCloud homepage

* Facebook (third party, commercial)

* Twitter (third party, commercial)

* Wikipedia (third party, non-profit)

* Yahoo (third party, commercial)

So half of what a reset Safari gives me are pages of obvious commercial interest and probably bought by those companies.

comparing freedom from firefox to safari? really?

Not on the desktop, but in Opera Mini there have been product placements on both the home screen and speed dial screens for a while.

I'm somewhat OK with it, considering it is a free product. What sucks is that they don't respect my synced Opera Link settings when on a new OM installation. Have to remove items on the speed dial screen manually at that time. The home screen ones are not removable at all, from what I can see.

opera started being free with ads on top of every page.

why people here insists on comparing FF, which we all contributed code, donated money, helped users on forums, etc, to commercially developed offerings?

It is The Same Thing.

It will be pre populated with selected sites, just like your new iPhone have yahoo, espn, etc.

Sponsored content is newspeak for ads.

Free of charge? I was under the impression that Google pays a huge amount of money for that.