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Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

bleepingcomputer.com

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Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#51

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #18
wlesieutre wrote: post #2

Makes you wonder how someone thought this was a good idea in a browser that was an early pioneer of popup blockers. Imagine if Firefox in the 2000's had seen popup ads and said "Yeah let's get in on that action!" At least it was a small scale experiment and not something that rolled out to the whole install base, I use Firefox on a couple of computers and didn't see it myself. But should you really need user feedback…

>Makes you wonder how someone thought this was a good idea in a browser that was an early pioneer of popup blockers. Two reasons: clueless management who chases short term returns, and a rabid fanbase that will constantly make excuses for them no matter how much they decline, because "at least they're not Google/Microsoft"

"Rabid fanbase"? I feel like the majority of us are only begrudging users. Best of the worst available options.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#52

Post by slig »

bornfreddy wrote: post #29

I love Firefox but starting to hate Mozilla. How many more tricks like that do they have in store for us? It's as if someone there is determined to undermine this browser's reputation.

It's not like their main competitor pays them half a billion a year.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#53

Post by freediver »

All directly or indirectly ad-supported business models will sooner or later come to the point of breakage in serving user”s best interests, as the fundamental misalignment of incentives between the business and its users creates a force too strong to contain.

This is entirely driven by a simple fact that in ad-supported businesses users are not the same as the customers.

I advocated several times and will do it again - Firefox should completely embrace a freemium browser business model, align incentives with its users, and attempt to have a second golden age (first was 2005-2010).

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#56

Post by grey_earthling »

VTimofeenko wrote: post #25
comice wrote: post #15

it's a bit unclear what they intended here but I see a lot of people assuming the absolute worst intent. That Firefox would fully intend to insert full page unskippable adverts of it's own into unrelated websites is a major accusation and there is evidence this was an accident. Looks more to me like bleepingcomputer purposefully sensationalized the issue as clickbait.

Bugzilla links in yesterday's post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36077360 seem to indicate that Mozilla intended for the popup to be shown if the user is AFK for 20 minutes but that timer malfunctioned

This is a great way to freak people out and make them distrust you — move their stuff while they're not looking.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#57

Post by iso1631 »

super256 wrote: post #16
walrus01 wrote: post #9

The particularly terrible thing about this is that the Mozilla VPN product is actually Mullvad underneath, one of the better and more ethical VPN providers. Then they have to do this popup ad bullshit pushed by the browser and take a dump all over it.

What is the value proposition of using Mozilla VPN over Mullvad directly, other than adding a layer of USA on top of it (which is a bad thing imo)? Also, has Mozilla VPN also a windows client, or is it more like the Opera Proxies (which were called VPN for some reason)?

I use Mozilla VPN rather than Mullvad because it was a nice way of supporting mozilla and thus firefox.

I also think that while mozilla may handle my finances, mullvad handle the VPN. Mozilla doesn't get the technical details of mullvad and thus don't know what IP I'm on, and I don't think mullvad know my name. Sure it's not quite cash in an envelope, but paranoia comes with a cost too.

> Also, has Mozilla VPN also a windows client, or is it more like the Opera Proxies (which were called VPN for some reason)?

No idea, but it has a linux client and an ios client. It's a nice simple wireguard VPN

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#58

Post by lelanthran »

sharess wrote: post #49
wlesieutre wrote: post #2

Makes you wonder how someone thought this was a good idea in a browser that was an early pioneer of popup blockers. Imagine if Firefox in the 2000's had seen popup ads and said "Yeah let's get in on that action!" At least it was a small scale experiment and not something that rolled out to the whole install base, I use Firefox on a couple of computers and didn't see it myself. But should you really need user feedback…

This ad overlay shows such a fundamental lack of understanding on what Firefox was built on that the people who greenlighted this need to go immediately. They are completely out of their depth and not fit for their job.

The people who greenlighted this were the people who ousted those who built Firefox. The current crop of "leaders" have a vision that does not include Firefox being the best browser it can be.

Trust me, they're politically aware of what they are doing, and are only gauging outrage now. Give it some time and they'll figure out how to leverage the outrage, as they did before.

Never let a good crisis go to waste, and all that.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#59

Post by djbusby »

kramerger wrote: post #39

"The advertisement boosts Mozilla VPN, a paid open-source VPN service that constitutes a crucial revenue source for the not-for-profit company." In 2021, Mozilla CEO received $5M in compensation. I don't really consider them a non-profit.

Wish my non-profit paid like that.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#60

Post by MichaelZuo »

logdap wrote: post #4
wlesieutre wrote: post #2

Makes you wonder how someone thought this was a good idea in a browser that was an early pioneer of popup blockers. Imagine if Firefox in the 2000's had seen popup ads and said "Yeah let's get in on that action!" At least it was a small scale experiment and not something that rolled out to the whole install base, I use Firefox on a couple of computers and didn't see it myself. But should you really need user feedback…

Mozilla management are malicious snakes. This isn't the first time they've tried something like this and it won't be the last. Each time they issue noncommittally apologies, if you can call them that, but it keeps on happening. They're testing the water for even more ads in Firefox, trying to normalize this until people stop complaining. Keep the heat on them, don't give them an inch or they'll take a mile.

They might not care anymore or trying to do a Hail Mary, once >99% of browser-share is just Chromium and Webkit/Safari, then popular websites might not even work with FireFox anymore.
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