Closed Bug 1165386 Opened 9 years ago Closed 9 years ago

Always show SPONSORED for any type of sponsored tiles and SUGGESTED for other suggested

Categories

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect)

defect
Not set
normal
Points:
3

Tracking

()

VERIFIED FIXED
Firefox 41
Iteration:
41.1 - May 25
Tracking Status
firefox39 --- affected
firefox40 --- verified
firefox41 --- verified

People

(Reporter: dholbert, Assigned: Mardak)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

(Whiteboard: .001)

Attachments

(6 files)

(STR: Open a new tab in a fresh Firefox profile. Click through the newtab tour.)

The newtab tour (added in today's nightly, via bug 1138818 I believe) includes this language:
> Some of the sites you will see may be suggested by Mozilla
> and may be sponsored by a Mozilla partner. We'll always
> indicate which sites are sponsored.

This can be read to indicate that there are two classes of tiles -- "suggested by Mozilla", and then (within that) "sponsored" tiles.

Then, when I end the tour & see the actual new tab, it's quite confusing, because:
 - *all* of the tiles seem to be "suggested by Mozilla" (they're all provided by Mozilla & are mostly Mozilla-related)
 - only one tile is actually tagged as "Suggested". Given the tour, this seems odd.
 - *Zero* tiles are tagged as "sponsored". But there is one that's clearly sponsored (and it's the one that's labeled as "suggested")

EXPECTED RESULTS: The sentence "We'll always indicate which sites are sponsored" needs to be clearer & maybe use the word "suggested" to make the connection more direct. (assuming the "suggested" label really means "sponsored")
Do we need to change the intro messaging to say "suggested" instead of "sponsored?"
Yes, good call Ed. Change "sponsored" to "suggested."

Thanks!
Attachment #8606379 - Attachment description: screenshot of new tab page, post-tour. All sites are clearly "suggested by mozilla", only one tagged as "suggested". Not clearly "indicat[ing] which sites are sponsored" → screenshot of new tab page, post-tour. All sites seem "suggested by mozilla", though only one is tagged as "suggested". Not clearly "indicat[ing] which sites are sponsored"
(In reply to Aaron from comment #3)
> Change "sponsored" to "suggested."
To be clear, the message would then become..

> Some of the sites you will see may be suggested by Mozilla
> and may be suggested by a Mozilla partner. We'll always
> indicate which sites are suggested.
(In reply to Aaron from comment #3)
> Yes, good call Ed. Change "sponsored" to "suggested."

Thanks -- that would make it clearer I think. (That reduces the impression that "sponsored" and "suggested" are two different things.)

(In reply to Ed Lee :Mardak from comment #5)
> > Some of the sites you will see may be suggested by Mozilla
> > and may be suggested by a Mozilla partner. We'll always
> > indicate which sites are suggested.

I think it's important to keep "sponsored by a Mozilla partner" in there. (otherwise it looks like we're trying to hide the fact that we're being compensated)

But I do like having "suggested" in the final sentence there, as noted above.
Good point. I propose the following change:

"Some of the sites you will see may be suggested by Mozilla or a partner. Suggestions will always be clearly labeled."

?
Maybe "Sponsored suggestions will always be clearly labeled"?

(Otherwise, comment 7's language gives the impression that suggestions from Mozilla would be clearly labeled as well.)
Suggested Mozilla content should include a "SPONSORED" label as well.

The only Mozilla content that is NOT labeled are Mozilla Directory Tiles.
(In reply to Aaron from comment #9)
> Suggested Mozilla content should include a "SPONSORED" label as well.
If you mean "SUGGESTED" ok. It was decided in bug 1138817 to switch all tags to SUGGESTED.
Oh, yeah sorry - meant SUGGESTED!!
(In reply to Aaron from comment #9)
> Suggested Mozilla content should include a "SPONSORED" [edit: SUGGESTED] label as well.

I'm confused. So should every tile in attachment 8606379 [details] be labeled as SUGGESTED then?

> The only Mozilla content that is NOT labeled are Mozilla Directory Tiles.

(This distinction isn't meaningful to users, at least at this point in the tour.  I still think Comment 7 is confusing in light of the actual rendering of about:newtab in attachment 8606379 [details].)
I am a bit confused here on this thread and sudden changes. If a Tile is paid for by a partner, we need to indicate that (basic truth in advertising law and rules) and we had settled on using "Sponsored" to indicate that.

Suggested is used to preserve our editorial rights under the 1st amendment as a defines to trademark claims of infringement and other similar claims. I thought we were using "Suggested because you like [CATEGORY]" language under the tile? I don't see that here at all. Why are we suddenly using a Suggested banner (I don't believe that was ever a requirement but we can certainly use a banner if we want). 

The challenge then becomes suggested sponsored has 2 banners on it. We can't show a Tile that is sponsored without indicating that.

This thread seems to have changed things a bit and I believe we might need to meet about this to get realigned and sync on it unless I am missing something. Sorry it is hard to follow here. Maybe a live demo will help.
(In reply to Geoff Piper from comment #13)
> I am a bit confused here on this thread and sudden changes. If a Tile is
> paid for by a partner, we need to indicate that (basic truth in advertising
> law and rules) and we had settled on using "Sponsored" to indicate that.

This is a bit of a detour for this bug -- it sounds like the Sponsored-->Suggested change happened in bug 1138817 (bug 1138817 comment 8 in particular, which needinfo'd you).

If that label needs to change again (change back, etc), that probably deserves its own bug, and/or discussion on bug 1138817.
Geoff,

As per what I thought we agreed upon:

1.) The only label we show is "Suggested"

  - For current users, Suggested Tiles will also include "Similar to sites about [category]".
  - For new users (Directory Tiles), there is no contextual statement because their isn't any browsing history to based the recommendation on.

2.) Clicking the "Suggested" label, OR choosing "About this site" from the tile control menu, will show a new overlay that discloses that the site is from a paying partner.

Nothing has changed since that conversation.
Ok I am going to have to say somehow I must have completely led you astray over time and I think we should meet. I understand that the conversations of truth in advertising (i.e., delineating paid ads) versus all of the issues around suggested content can get confusing and may well be blurring together or overlapping but they are distinct issues.

Remember this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fzka_hU9VMQlHsY887LcKqqDZmepYwFSOMy-GYPzcZ0/edit
This link lays out how all similar partners in the industry treat paid ads. They label them clearly in the forefront to the user. They must be per best practices to avoid legal risk. That is what our partners do, this is how we should do it, and I believe this is what Denelle wants and I believe this is what we have been doing with DTs all along. We shouldn't change this practice.

I believe us having the user to have to click a label to discover it is paid is not in line with industry standards, is far too risky and I don't think I meant to say that is how we should do it.

So, here is what are the guidelines for labeling the Tiles:

1) Any Tile that is paid must be label "Sponsored" up front, immediately apparent to the user. I don't think I meant to ever morph that requirement.

2) If it is Suggested content we should use language under the tile that says "Suggested because you like {CATEOGRY}" (or the other similar alternatives we had, team to choose). This is a separate issue from paid ads.

3) I don't believe I ever said a Suggested banner is a requirement. But if we want it, great, that's cool. This seems though to create 2 seperate banners in the case where it is a suggested paid partner Tile. And we cannot move the sponsored banner away from the forefront.

So, perhaps a good solution is: (1) "Sponsored" banner appears in Tiles always in the bottom right corner for any Tile that was paid for by a partner; (2) if we want to use a "Suggested" banner, it can appear in the bottom left Tile corner and the suggested text goes under the Tile; and (3) if it happens to be a suggested paid Tile, this Tile will have a Sponsored banner in the bottom right and a Suggested banner in the bottom left with the suggested text under it.
Also, FWIW: the language on our official Tiles info-page says:
> sponsored partner sites (clearly marked as “sponsored”)
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/tiles/

Obviously, this does not correctly describe Nightly right now. (But per comment 16 it sounds like Nightly will be changing back to use "sponsored" soon.)
We'll use SPONSORED for sponsored tiles and show it being used in the onboarding. This avoids needing to change the onboarding messaging too.

Here's the tags that should show for each type of tile:

organic directory = blank
affiliate directory = blank
sponsored directory = SPONSORED

organic enhanced = blank
affiliate enhanced = blank
sponsored enhanced = SPONSORED

organic suggested = SUGGESTED
affiliate suggested = SUGGESTED
sponsored suggested = SPONSORED
Assignee: nobody → edilee
Iteration: --- → 41.1 - May 25
Points: --- → 3
Summary: "We'll always indicate which sites are sponsored" language might need tweaking (since we indicate via the fuzzy word "suggested") → Always show SPONSORED for any type of sponsored tiles and SUGGESTED for other suggested
Whiteboard: .001
Blocks: 1140185
Updated comps for Fx 39:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3n3w3vrmrsf2ziv/AAB6R13akJED81_CHTh8QP3-a?dl=0

Updated comps for Fx 40:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/agnatvu0atu36nt/AABCYBR9EFSb8xpmCv0HsFbua?dl=0

NEW STYLES...

SPONSORED
Static = BG: #6C6C6C (DARK GRAY) / Text: #FFFFFF
URL bar rollover = NO CHANGE
Label rollover = BG: #4A90E2 (BLUE) / Text: #FFFFFF

SUGGESTED
Static = BG: #DDDDDD (LIGHT GRAY) / Text: #4A4A4A
URL bar rollover = BG: #6C6C6C (DARK GRAY) / Text: #FFFFFF
Label rollover = BG: #4A90E2 (BLUE) / Text: #FFFFFF

ACTIVE (for both) = BG: #000000 / Text: #FFFFFF
(In reply to Aaron from comment #19)
> NEW STYLES...
Why are we changing this now? Why in this bug?
Perhaps this was the wrong place to include this... 

Technically, the only change I'm proposing is a light gray BG w/ dark gray text for static "Suggested" labels. All other states for both "Sponsored" and "Suggested" are the same as before.

I did this to easily differentiate "Sponsored" from Suggested" with a subtle color tweak.

The specs above were only to clarify, not infer that all those styles had changed. My apologies for not indicating that :P
Attached image v1 screenshot
This shuffles around a few paragraphs to make the intro and update have the same 2 paragraphs per slide except update has the one specific to being updated.

The ordering is also shuffled so that suggestions are shown before sponsored. And sponsored is on the slide with pin/remove.
Comment on attachment 8607182 [details]
v1 screenshot

Is this shuffling described in comment 22 okay? Before sometimes we would introduce both suggestions and sponsored on the same slide, but we wouldn't be able to show both [suggested] and [sponsored] at the same time.

This change makes it so introduction of suggestions has a [suggested] example. And mentioning "always indicate which are sponsored" has a [sponsored] example.
Attachment #8607182 - Flags: ui-review?(athornburgh)
Ed, these look spot on to me from the screenshots you provided.

I think once we have real tiles to show, it will make more sense.

Great work!
Blocks: 1165420
Attached patch v1Splinter Review
Attachment #8607231 - Flags: review?(adw)
Blocks: 1138817
Attachment #8607231 - Flags: review?(adw) → review+
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/e1f33224ece7
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Target Milestone: --- → Firefox 41
Verified on 41.0a1 (2015-05-26)

JSON testing file - https://people.mozilla.org/~mzhilyaev/suggested1.json

Per Mardak's comment: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1165386#c18
Tried various settings for directory and suggested tiles and verified that:
- sponsored tile always gets [SPONSORED] button regardless its suggested/directory/enhanced listing  
- a suggested, non-sponsored tile gets [SUGGESTED]
- all other cases, i see nothing
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Comment on attachment 8610026 [details] [diff] [review]
for aurora (Mardak will land)

Approval Request Comment: See bug 1140185 comment 11
Attachment #8610026 - Flags: approval-mozilla-aurora?
Clarifying verification steps:

1. create new or clear existing profile
2. Set browser.newtabpage.directory.source = https://people.mozilla.org/~mzhilyaev/verify/1165386.json
3. load newtab page
4. observe 3 directory tiles:
 - Mozilla Community
 - Mozilla Manifesto ([SPONSORED])
 - Customize Firefox

Note that "Mozilla Manifesto" tile has type=sponsored, and [SPONSORED] is shown. The rest of directory tiles are of affiliate and organic types, hence no button

5.  load mozilla.org multiple times
6.  load 7 other different sites to have 8 history tiles 
7.  quit and restart FX
8.  click on newtab - you should see one of the two suggested tiles:
- Suggested Sponsored [SPONSORED]
- Suggested Affiliate [SUGGESTED]

Clicks newtab 3 times to switch to another tile. Note thar "Suggested Affiliate" has type=affiliate, while "Suggested Sponsored" has type=sponsored
Comment on attachment 8610026 [details] [diff] [review]
for aurora (Mardak will land)

approval-mozilla-aurora+ granted in bug 1140185 comment 14
Attachment #8610026 - Flags: approval-mozilla-aurora?
Confirming the fix using the STR from comment 32 on latest Aurora, build ID: 20150528004000.

Tested on Windows 7 64-bit, Mac OS X 10.9.5 and Ubuntu 14.04 32-bit.
QA Contact: cornel.ionce
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