I jumped over to chromium a few months ago. I suggest everyone else do the same.
This battle is over: Chrome won. Perhaps the war (whatever it is) isn't over yet.
Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
311–320 of 721 posts
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many people would pay for firefox. I don't know if it's enough people to offset what advertisers are willing to pay, nor if adding that would dissuade too many users but it'd be nice to have the option to pay so we can support the development of the browser directly, and avoid adverts. Donating to the foundation feels a bit like donating to the WWF because I want to help a specific Panda I met at the zoo.
I would rather donate to avoid having random pandas appear at my window and wave manically. But I would much rather not be forced to donate by such unsolicited panda attacks. It seems it's time to find a Firefox alternative now, privacy-minded and ad-free. Pity the web is mostly unusable with w3m. Would any HNers recommend DDG's browser as a viable alternative?
Using DDG since years and am happy with it. There was a time where I used !g more often but that isn't the case anymore. And when I still do, I'm typically disappointed.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#313It’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.
This was my first thought, then I remembered Google gives Mozilla hundreds of millions every year, Mitchell Baker is paid 3 millions/year (after 250 people were laid off) when Firefox is basically dying.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#314As 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…
Well, if Mozilla trusts someone - I feel curious. I would believe they have a chance to be better than others and my trust to them in fact goes from 0% to 25%.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You don't see a slightest problem with that, no? If adMarketplace is just receiving from Mozilla a stream of (search text, city, clicked yes/no) then no, I don't see a problem with it. If Mozilla sends a unique user ID as well then I would see a problem with it, but as far as I can tell, they don't.
You are OK that - by default - you type something in the Firefox address bar and some random company you've heard of gets a copy of it? You are A-OK with this? Because this is on by default in FF93, be it a new install or an upgrade. For now limited to the US, but it's safe to assume they are just testing waters.
Its not by default. You have to turn this feature on.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd love to be able to pay some monthly subscription to support Firefox. But every time this comes up, someone tells me that there's no way to directly support Firefox itself. I wish they'd do something like Wikipedia does, to ask their users to donate or contribute.
Unless I'm mistaken, Wikipedia doesn't ringfence their donations either, so by donating to the Wikimedia foundation [0] you're not just paying for wikipedia either. [0] https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php
If you donate to Mozilla, you don't pay for Firefox at all.
Conversely, AFAIK, Wikimedia doesn't accept money for merchandising their users. At least not in any official, straightforward way.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The suggestions are not relevant to "Relevant" is a code word for "we spy on your every move and also share your personal browsing behaviour with our many external partners to serve you relevant ads".
They don't do any of those things, according to the article. Perhaps you didn't read it.
Suggesting someone didn’t read the article is against the HN guidelines.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Knowing Mozilla, the option will be changed and renamed every version and will have to be re-enabled manually again and again.
And eventually, Mozilla's 'telemetry' will tell them that 95% users never opt out, and that'll justify removing the opt out option entirely.
That might be just the motivation needed to create a fork.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you get 5000 people paying $5/month for every person working on a truly private browser, you have $25,000/month per teammate. I'm sure you could find 50,000 people in the world willing to pay this. I'm one of them. The problem is how you get started while building reputation, but I'm sure that it's possible.
There's some remarkable sleight of hand in "for every person working on [it]". That's a lot of people required to build a browser. Are you suggesting each of those 5000 users pays $5 multiplied by $NUM_OF_DEVELOPERS, or that you'll need [5000 multiplied by $NUM_OF_DEVELOPERS] users?
The latter. The numbers are not precise, it's just to show that you really don't need a lot of paying people and they really don't need to pay a lot each.
Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions
#320Meh, 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?
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