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Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

zdnet.com

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Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#31

Post by joveian »

lasr21 wrote: post #14

Firefox will NOT include ads - Stop the misinformation!! currently the default new tab page on a NEW installation is mostly empty: http://i.imgur.com/z71I89i.jpg What will happen is that it will be pre-filled with sites that are popular in your locale, organizations that Mozilla likes, and sponsored sites: http://cl.ly/image/3I172o2f202k The pre-filled sites disappear and are replaced by your own top sites as you sta…

"...sponsored sites...", which most of us call ads. Opera seems to do this with speed dial and it seems like a great way for them to make a little money while I can just remove them and never see them again. IMO, Mozilla should just copy the speed dial exactly and put the ads there, but that is mostly because I find Mozilla's interpretation of speed dial to just be annoying.

ETA: I do think that just saying "Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser" per zdnet is a bit misleading.

Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#32

Post by padenot »

KnightHawk3 wrote: post #20
avolcano wrote: post #15

Honestly, if Mozilla wants to continue surviving, and wants to break their scary dependence on Google, I don't know what non-advertising alternatives they can explore. (maybe a Wikipedia-style pledge drive on the new tab page? Of course, I bet people would be far more annoyed by that)

They already have that right? I remember seeing a "if everyone paid $3" ad at one point.

That was for the Mozilla Foundation, not the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox, Firefox for Android, FirefoxOS are made by the Mozilla Corporation.

Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#34

Post by Aaronn »

KnightHawk3 wrote: post #20
avolcano wrote: post #15

Honestly, if Mozilla wants to continue surviving, and wants to break their scary dependence on Google, I don't know what non-advertising alternatives they can explore. (maybe a Wikipedia-style pledge drive on the new tab page? Of course, I bet people would be far more annoyed by that)

They already have that right? I remember seeing a "if everyone paid $3" ad at one point.

on Mozilla? I don't think so...

Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#36

Post by dave5104 »

chrismorgan wrote: post #27
dave5104 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, "sponsored sites" is just another word for "ads".

By that token, the pre-installed search sites are ads. There's big money associated with those things, yet I haven't heard anyone complaining about them. I like the look of this new feature—I think it will be more useful to beginning users, it produces a nicer first-run user experience, and it gets out of the way very quickly. I'm not sure if people think that Google Chrome has ads like this or not—to my view, the wh…

I'm not implying I have a problem with Mozilla including these ads. If it helps them out in the end to keep the browser field competitive, I'm all for it.

I also won't argue your point about calling the pre-installed search engines as ads--but they have a utility to them. The upcoming ads are going to have a hit or miss utility. Either I frequent that sponsored site, or I don't and find it to be a waste of space on my new tab page until it gets filled out by another site.

I think if anything, I'd just be worried that this is a slippery slope for Mozilla. These new sponsored site listings seem completely un-intrusive for now... but could it go further in the future?

Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#37

Post by Aaronn »

throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #18
avolcano wrote: post #15

Honestly, if Mozilla wants to continue surviving, and wants to break their scary dependence on Google, I don't know what non-advertising alternatives they can explore. (maybe a Wikipedia-style pledge drive on the new tab page? Of course, I bet people would be far more annoyed by that)

Looks like Mozilla's budget is ~6x that of Wikipedia. $300 M/year figure FTA, vs. $49 M/year from https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Budget

Except a huge part of that money comes from Google, and avolcano specifically mentions that Mozilla is trying to break away from Google

Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#38

Post by callahad »

Aaronn wrote: post #34
KnightHawk3 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already have that right? I remember seeing a "if everyone paid $3" ad at one point.

on Mozilla? I don't think so...

That was indeed one of the `about:home` snippets during Foundation's year-end fundraising.

Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#39

Post by Silhouette »

lasr21 wrote: post #14

Firefox will NOT include ads - Stop the misinformation!! currently the default new tab page on a NEW installation is mostly empty: http://i.imgur.com/z71I89i.jpg What will happen is that it will be pre-filled with sites that are popular in your locale, organizations that Mozilla likes, and sponsored sites: http://cl.ly/image/3I172o2f202k The pre-filled sites disappear and are replaced by your own top sites as you sta…

Firefox will NOT include ads

If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck...

I think you're picking the wrong fight here. There is nothing inherently wrong with advertising, if it's done with due respect for those who will see the ads and, in this case, who are using the software. It sounds like that will be the case here, just as it was when they made Google the default search engine.

But by claiming this isn't an advertising scheme, all you're doing is putting yourself the wrong side of an argument you can't possibly win. It obviously is an advertising scheme, and you immediately lose all credibility by pretending otherwise.

Re: Mozilla to deliver ads in its Firefox browser

#40

Post by Fishkins »

chrismorgan wrote: post #27
dave5104 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, "sponsored sites" is just another word for "ads".

By that token, the pre-installed search sites are ads. There's big money associated with those things, yet I haven't heard anyone complaining about them. I like the look of this new feature—I think it will be more useful to beginning users, it produces a nicer first-run user experience, and it gets out of the way very quickly. I'm not sure if people think that Google Chrome has ads like this or not—to my view, the wh…

People have different expectations of Mozilla than they do of Google. I wouldn't be surprised by Chrome adding more ads, but I was very surprised by this headline.

That being said, I think the proposed ads are very tasteful, and it won't affect my browser use.

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