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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

#81

Post by MiddleEndian »

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…

Microsoft basically got in on this with a lot of their recent Windows stuff. With Windows 7, suddenly you saw people's PCs were no longer full of adware. Then by 8 or 10, Microsoft thought, "Wait, people put up with adware for decades, let's get on that and put it into the OS ourselves."

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#83

Post by eterm »

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

That's worse.

The last thing I want is my browser popping something up when I'm AFK.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#84

Post by pleb_nz »

fabrice_d wrote: post #8
psychphysic wrote: post #5

Wow if ad blockers can work does that mean Firefox injects this advert? Its not just and overlay but code added to the webpage? I'm awe struck at the stupidity of this idea.

No it's not blocked by ad blockers, since this was not injected in pages but part of the browser UI (the "chrome").

I wonder why I have not seen the advert popup then. I run Firefox daily for 8 to 10 hours and I've not seen it once... Something must be blocking it for me.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#85

Post by JohnFen »

sandyarmstrong wrote: post #3

I noticed this yesterday. I've been using Mozilla/Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox as my primary browser for over 20 years. They've made some questionable calls, sure, but most of the recent things that have bothered people (like Pocket integration) haven't really irked me. This is the first time where I got a visceral feeling that maybe this isn't the browser I knew and loved anymore. It's not like I'm uninstalling and swit…

I switched away from Firefox a couple of years ago for a number of reasons that can be collectively summarized as "Firefox no longer meets my needs".

But as a Firefox user from the very beginning, I still keep tabs on it, hoping that it will improve enough for me to return to it. Things like this, however, strongly indicate to me that Firefox is just lost and will never find its way back.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#86

Post by lolinder »

JohnFen wrote: post #85
sandyarmstrong wrote: post #3

I noticed this yesterday. I've been using Mozilla/Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox as my primary browser for over 20 years. They've made some questionable calls, sure, but most of the recent things that have bothered people (like Pocket integration) haven't really irked me. This is the first time where I got a visceral feeling that maybe this isn't the browser I knew and loved anymore. It's not like I'm uninstalling and swit…

I switched away from Firefox a couple of years ago for a number of reasons that can be collectively summarized as "Firefox no longer meets my needs". But as a Firefox user from the very beginning, I still keep tabs on it, hoping that it will improve enough for me to return to it. Things like this, however, strongly indicate to me that Firefox is just lost and will never find its way back.

What did you switch to?

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#87

Post by jeroenhd »

ilikepi wrote: post #11
sandyarmstrong wrote: post #3

I noticed this yesterday. I've been using Mozilla/Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox as my primary browser for over 20 years. They've made some questionable calls, sure, but most of the recent things that have bothered people (like Pocket integration) haven't really irked me. This is the first time where I got a visceral feeling that maybe this isn't the browser I knew and loved anymore. It's not like I'm uninstalling and swit…

Did you miss the episode in 2017 in which they used an internal control to force the installation of an add-on as part of a promotion for a television show? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941302 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15940144 I feel similarly to you...long-time user, bummed out by stuff like this. Sometimes it feels like Firefox would be a lot better off without Mozilla occasionally making deal…

The execution was definitely terrible, but "browser company ships promotional easter egg" isn't that bad as "browser company inserts ads into browsing experience" in my opinion. These ads are why Windows 10+ has become a trash fire despite all the technical improvements made to Windows.

Mozilla were stupid enough to try and sneak this Roboto stuff in, probably as part of the requirements or intentions of the ad campaign, rather than be transparent about it. Stupidity rather than malice.

The VPN ad is a targeted decision comingffrom within the non-profit. I sort of get it, Mozilla is desperate for income because Google is keeping them afloat, barely anyone who donates cares about anything but the browser, and the for-profit ventures aren't gaining much success.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#88

Post by mozman »

dehrmann wrote: post #68
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a conspiracy that Google has paid off Mozilla management to specifically sabotage the browser development. Actions like this make it hard to dispute the moves that frequently seem deliberately anti-user.

Th other conspiracy I've heard is Google subsidizes Mozilla so they have a credible claim there's competition in the market.

This is the correct answer

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#90

Post by [deleted] »

the_duke wrote: post #17
sandyarmstrong wrote: post #3

I noticed this yesterday. I've been using Mozilla/Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox as my primary browser for over 20 years. They've made some questionable calls, sure, but most of the recent things that have bothered people (like Pocket integration) haven't really irked me. This is the first time where I got a visceral feeling that maybe this isn't the browser I knew and loved anymore. It's not like I'm uninstalling and swit…

Firefox at least exposes an endless amount of toggles to tweak pretty much every behaviour the browser has. This is includes settings for removing or disabling all the integration with Mozilla services and their ads. See for example: https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js

[deleted]
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