So, the 9 tiles on the about:newtab are going to be populated when you're a first user and "Some of these tile placements will be from the Mozilla ecosystem, so

So, the 9 tiles on the about:newtab are going to be populated when you're a first user and "Some of these tile placements will be from the Mozilla ecosystem, some will be popular websites in a given geographic location, and some will be sponsored content from hand-picked partners to help support Mozilla’s pursuit of our mission. The sponsored tiles will be clearly labeled as such, while still leading to content we think users will enjoy."[0] If I remember correctly there's a button in about:newtab to hide the tiles, and you can easily change the behaviour to open about:blank or any other page instead. [0]https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publisher-transformation-with-users-at-the-center/ https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publish...