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Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

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71–80 of 721 posts

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#71

Now I better understand why they butchered the address bar the way they did. Instead of treating it like simple form element their change served one point and one point only, draw attention to it and make it more prominent. And the reason for it was just to serve their ads on a bigger and more intrusive canvas and not UX related.

Well, no, the address bar is one of Firefox’s best UX features. Thank god it’s not just a simple form element, it’s much more useful now. Before it was something like the Windows run dialog text box but now it’s more similar to my zsh prompt with aliases for searching and fuzzy history recall etc.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#72
post #60

> Users outside of the U.S. will experience this feature with local results only (browsing history, bookmarks, and open tabs). Are they scared of GDPR, or are they just boiling one pot of frogs at a time...?

Most of their experiments start in the US, IIRC

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#73
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A browser is expensive. Currently Firefox is funded (though not controlled) by Google's Ad business. I am all for them reducing their reliance on Google's Ad business. In this sense this is a step _towards_ what you want. I really really dislike them double speaking about this though.

Is there a way to know how the Mozilla Foundation spend its money? They've stopped updating this page[0] in 2019. Maybe a way to rely less on Google and "trusted partners" money is just to spend less. [1] https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/who-we-are/public-records/

[deleted]

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#75
post #34

Meh, the feature is easily deactivable, the settings are clear and extensive. As far as ads go, it's one of the best implementations. Firefox still has no alternative in the privacy / user-centric space (don't mention Brave, I'm gonna get mad). Mozilla has done a lot for the web, I can give them some slack for exploring different revenue models. Still, I'm going to keep on eye for this kind of practices in the future…

Outsider here: whats wrong with brave? I haven’t touched it but have no reason to distrust it, happy for you to change that for me though

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#76

It’s sucky and I particularly hate ads percolating to every part if my life, BUT how are they meant to support Firefox and other software without a revenue stream? Mozilla seems to attract criticism for how they run the whole operation, I can’t tell how correct it is, but even if they run it perfectly they still need revenue.

There should be a paid ad free membership for anyone who doesn’t like ads. Even if not many people take them up on this offer, it would be more fair since there would be a choice.

This! How hard can it be to put a FF subscription payment somewhere inside the browser or on their website?

Of course people can always fork it and remove it blabla. But we're talking about people who otherwise would donate and just want to do it more directly (as opposed to the whole Mozilla foundation)

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#77

Before you attack Mozilla….. are you using it as your primary browser? I.e are you supporting them already? Do you believe Mozilla should be able to pay its bills? If you’re not happy with this way of raising revenue, what else do you suggest?

Yes, since it was named Phoenix. Id pay $50 every five years or so for a new version. But for that five years they only introduce bugfixes and introduce zero UI changes.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#78

I've lost hope for Firefox when the browser started opening spyware-infused ("tag manager") sites describing how Mozilla takes privacy seriously, immediately after browser's installation and before the user has any chance to add uBlock Origin or other Firefox add-on that limits spyware/malware execution on their device.

Did/do they? I forgot about that. Do you have a source?

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a paid ad free membership for anyone who doesn’t like ads. Even if not many people take them up on this offer, it would be more fair since there would be a choice.

Alternatively, you could just choose to opt out when it asks you?

Yes, but how can you then support FF financially to make sure it doesn't go away or development grinds to a halt?

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#80

If their CEO salary was not paid in millions dollars maybe the users would be more keen to donate money? I never saw a fundraising like the ones from Wikipedia.

What’s wrong with paying market rates for a CEO? Do you think they should find a CEO below market rates? Have you donated money to Mozilla or Wikipedia?

>What’s wrong with paying market rates for a CEO?

More expensive doesn't mean better, it most likely just means putting someone in charge whose primary metric is short-term profit.

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