You can flag and block articles you don't want, so you'll ideally refine your results over time to get only the content you'd actually care to see. And Mozilla, the privacy advocate that it is, knows that the recommendation system may make some people uncomfortable. On top of the warning that the extension will send browsing activity to Laserlike, it's promising controls to both halt the experiment as well as review the collected data and delete it on Laserlike's side. Mozilla said it would try out "different methods" of supplying recommendations if there's enough interest, so you might see alternatives if this approach makes you uneasy. You can install Advance today. This probably won't pull you away from Chrome or another browser if you're fiercely loyal, but it does show a slight shift in strategy for Mozilla. Where past Test Pilots have tended to focus on raw browser functionality, this is more about keeping the actual content fresh. It might work. Many browsers already have good-enough performance and features for typical browsing -- few of them invite you to explore.
Web browser Firefox is introducing a new system that uses machine learning to provide suggestions of articles to users, based on their web history. The Advance system uses technology from "interest search engine" firm Laserlike, which identifies patterns to sites visited and offers suggestions for new stories in a sidebar. Users can block or flag articles they don't want to read, to help refine the results, and the company is promising controls over halting and deleting the data collected, to address potential privacy concerns.