Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

support.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 721 posts

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#341

Post by jarofgreen »

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…

> the feature is easily deactivable

Except they have used the language of "not now" and hidden the link away instead of making it a button with equal prominence to the yes button.

That's not the behaviour of an organisation which thinks its users will be happy with what it's doing, it's the behaviour of an organisation which is trying to trick them.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#342

Post by aembleton »

hnarn wrote: post #284

The single largest benefits of Firefox to me is that it's privacy friendly and open source. If the first thing you have to do when installing this "privacy friendly" software is to disable a bunch of privacy invading features, what's the reason to not just use a fork instead? And if you're going to use a fork, why not just use open-source Chromium instead? What arguments are left to the benefit of Firefox, fighting w…

Support of the blocking webRequest API that allows uBlockOrigin to operate to its full extent.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#343

Post by imgabe »

No thank you. I really like Firefox but maybe it would be time to move on to Brave. It’s a shame because I want to support an alternative rendering engine besides Chrome so Google doesn’t control the whole Internet.

Do they need me to pay? I would 100% pay a reasonable annual subscription for a browser that works for me and not advertisers. Maybe $30 per year?

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#345

Post by morsch »

krono wrote: post #288
morsch wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure you weren't using a VLC clone that added this stuff? Because these things exist (e.g. "VLC plus"). They're basically malware, tricking people into downloading what they think is the genuine article.

Yeah I'm sure it was a genuine installation. See this: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=99040

I found this thread from 2012 while researching my post. There are in fact not a lot of posts about this topic. Are you sure these entries are sponsored? It doesn't say sponsored in the screenshot.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#346

Post by jarofgreen »

ekianjo wrote: post #299
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.

Worst thing is that every single time they do this kind of bullshit, they do it without asking for opt-in and enable it sneakily by default. Absolutely the worst.

The blog seems pretty clear they will be asking for permission?

Tho not in the best way, I feel, but at least this is opt-in?

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#348

Post by jacquesm »

zaphirplane wrote: post #236
samizdis wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Firefox doesn’t need 400 million per year to develop Mozilla has a lot of no value initiatives activities that they want to fund

Exactly that. If they got rid of their hobbies then this sort of scam wouldn't be necessary. Yes, it's a scam: bait and switch.

Re: Mozilla to put ads in Firefox address bar suggestions

#350

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

Winsaucerer wrote: post #118
Certhas wrote: 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.

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.

From what I understand doing donations and stipulating that it’s for a specific purpose can hurt a nonprofit more than help, because then vital logistics get underfunded and fuck up the competency of the organization. (Eg. Everyone wants to fund nonprofits cancer research or whatever, but what if they actually desperately need to fund remote work infrastructure because a global pandemic has forced them all to work remotely on short notice?)

Of course if you don’t like what an organization broadly does with the money given to it, don’t give it money. Maybe issue some feedback that you think the organization should do x or y, and the fact it’s doing p and q makes you hesitant to donate.

Post reply on HN