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Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

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Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#301

Post by johnsea »

Hendrikto wrote: post #135
leodriesch wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just makes me worry a little bit that Firefox will take a similar route to Brave and introduce multiple streams of revenue into the browser, disguised as features that the user would want. E.g. Brave Rewards, Brave VPN, Sponsored Wallpapers. These just clog up the interface and make it feel sketchy. I just want a normal FOSS browser, but I also understand the whole financing issue.

Financing is only an issue because they make it one. Mozilla has tons of money, but they just 1. spend too much of it, 2. on the wrong things, 3. and always want more.

Maybe if they would spend it on the right things, Google would stop paying?

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#302

Post by boomboomsubban »

toyg wrote: post #131
boomboomsubban wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I'm sure that person will do an excellent job negotiating the next default search contract worth several hundred million dollars.

Considering that contract was originally negotiated when exec salaries were much lower... likely yes, s/he would do a better job. It's very plain that Baker and her friends have lost the ideological hunger and now are just in it for the money they can make before it all goes bust.

What are you talking about? The contract is constantly renegotiated, and the only recent one that Baker was in charge for saw the same terms after the previous contract dropped over a hundred million dollars a year.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#303

Post by thinkingemote »

maleldil wrote: post #292
vadfa wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had an extremely competent CEO who was more than happy to work for a price below market rates, but he was a conservative, so they sacked him. Now Mozilla has what it deserves.

Being a Conservative is one thing, but he was/is (he hasn't publicly gone back on his stance AFAIK) homophobic. Eich had to go.

Inflexible people are less likely to compromise. The article and thread is all about how Firefox continues to be compromised.

One day people might start to see being inflexible and principled and not giving in might be a better characteristic than being easily compromised and selling out at every turn. Even when some principles are problematic. It's a cost benefit analysis ultimately and there are objectivly bad principles would could make this swing the other way of course.

I'm thinking of RMS as the model for this mainly too. Many here said he should go, but the FSF actually got the most members when they did, because some saw RMSs inflexibility as a strength.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#305

Post by rich_sasha »

fguerraz wrote: post #35
rich_sasha wrote: post #6

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.

I used to give money to Mozilla Foundation, I stopped when I realised it actually wasn't going to Firefox development, which is done by Mozilla Corporation. I even reached out to their support, and no, there is no way to support FF but with your eyeballs. With that feature, that I will of course disable for my personal use, I will not be able to recommend Firefox to other people any more. Please let us pay!

Seems to work for Wikipedia (possibly another dysfunctional example). I'd happily pay for Firefox too.

If nothing else, there's not that many rendering engines out there. Chrome, Brave and Edge are all Chromium. Safari is separate I guess, but that's tied to Apple platforms. I really don't want yet another Google monoculture.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#308

Post by nonbirithm »

samizdis wrote: post #128
eCa wrote: post #4

As someone who has used Firefox since v0.* I really, really, really dislike the language they have used lately. > relevant suggestions from our trusted partners The suggestions are not relevant to, and the partners not trusted by, me.

> I really, really, really dislike the language they have used lately. That is exactly the problem I have with it - weasel words and euphemisms; FF is scoring an own-goal here and eroding trust. Why not just tell it like it is. "We need funding and are lining up deals with third parties to display their ads/messaging in the address bar search. We vet these third parties by holding them contractually to these standard…

Having watched The Boys just an hour ago, I couldn't agree more. So much of that show is made up of language that conceals intent and how it is used to preserve one's public image and save face, and you can immediately tell when someone is actually willing to tell the truth instead of skirt around the actual issues.

The incentives aren't made clear and you're left with the gaps to fill leading up to how decisions like these got made at an executive level. Does Mozilla stand to lose favor with Google or someone else by trying to be more honest about what it's trying to accomplish, or avoid?

Mozilla does stand to lose a lot of favor with its core audience by trying to act corporate now of all times, with Firefox marketshare at an all-time low. And I have to wonder if these kind of statements were universally accepted by the people who are a part of the company, on the foundation or corporate side. Are there any Mozillians that believe that this is not Mozilla as people remember it? Would they be willing to express their thoughts, if so?

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#309

Post by deepstack »

Adrig wrote: 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…

>(don't mention Brave, I'm gonna get mad)

Just wonder the reason? Is it because it support the monopoly of google rendering engine? Or other reasons?

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#310

Post by Hnrobert42 »

y4mi wrote: post #210
Certhas wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is so much wishful thinking around this... "me and five other people want to pay, if you just cater to my specific tastes, than the me and these 5 people will happily bankroll your massive engineering effort!" Maybe people would be happier if they had to pay to switch off the ads instead of it just being a setting (/switching default search engine)??

It's not as clear cut as you seem to think. A lot of people just think that Mozilla should be a nonprofit and not aim to primarily enrich it's CEO and leadership. This isn't the case at the moment, which is clear if you paid any attention to what they've been doing for the last few years. Little of the money that's going to be raised by this will end up paying for engineers to improve or maintain the Firefox code bas…

Do you have a source showing the vast majority of revenue goes to leadership? In 2018, the CEO’s salary equaled 0.64% of revenue. Before we discuss whether that is right or wrong, we should at least agree on a set of facts.

https://itdm.com/mozilla-firefox-usage-down-85-but-why-are-e...

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