Almost all the links in my front homepage are sponsored now. What’s next, a few ads in the bookmark bar? How about when I enter a URL, I then have to type “McDonald’s” before I can actually navigate there?

    • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I was okay with the sponsored links, but now this is affecting the functionality of the app. My phone is shit and I have a hard time sliding to the next page.

          • KubeRoot@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            0·
            2 years ago

            Eh, the criticism isn’t invalid - those are still ads being added on the front page. What does irk me is people talking about how something breaks their workflow, yet they don’t even try to fix the issue.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 years ago

        but now this is affecting the functionality of the app

        This shit irks me so much, because it keeps happening!

        There’s this feature that makes your address bar randomly auto complete sponsored URLs instead of your actual history. Pretty fucking annoying to type n and have Netflix pop up, even though I don’t use it.

        When you disable this “feature”, it still breaks your autocomplete! Now instead of suggesting Netflix, it just sometimes doesn’t suggest anything before I continue typing.

        If you must add these anti-features to pay for your CEO, at least don’t break the app when it’s disabled!

        • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          I’m not really sure what you’re getting at?

          I understand that my circumstances are unusual but I would absolutely pay $20 a month without a moment’s hesitation.

          I would pay $50, but I’d really have to believe in the project.

          It’s worth noting that presently mozilla earns $0 from my not using google, and not seeing sponsored tabs.

          • Ferk@lemmy.ml
            0·
            2 years ago

            It’s worth noting that presently mozilla earns $0 from my not using google, and not seeing sponsored tabs.

            I thought Google pays (or paid?) Mozilla just to be the default engine out the box, regardless of whether you change it or not.

            Another point is that it’s so easy to turn those things off (the sponsored shortcuts too) that I wonder if it would be worth the cost of launching an alternate version behind a paywall while making sure it works only for people who pay (which could be seen as DRM anyway, with potentially massive backslash). So I imagine the end result would not be that profitable (whether they decide to paywall it properly or not). Those who wanna donate and have no ads can do that already, those who want a cleaned up version of Firefox can have that and from neutral and independent third parties which I’d argue is better than if it were Mozilla who did it (and you can donate to Mozilla while using those too)… so I’m not sure it would make sense.

            But it would make sense to have a donation pool specifically to fund Firefox development. That would be something interesting, considering Mozilla does other things besides Firefox.

            • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
              0·
              2 years ago

              You might be right about Googles agreement with Mozilla. I had assumed it would be based on the number of searches performed with a mozilla user agent but that’s just a guess.

              I’m not sure why exactly but I just feel very uncomfortable with the idea of donating to Mozilla. I absolutely believe in the importance of Firefox’ existance, and if I felt I was contributing to that then I would donate. I think with the situation as it is making a donation would feel a bit like voting - my own contribution isn’t going to effect the outcome, and I don’t really agree with mozilla’s behavior anyway.

              On the other hand, if Mozilla declared that they were going to spin off a separate org exclusively to develop and maintain firefox, and would have no ongoing relationship with google nor advertising of any kind, would focus on privacy, and were going to survive entirely on subscriptions, I feel like that’s something I could get behind and feel happy to contribute.

  • a9cx34udP4ZZ0@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    So how exactly were you planning on them making money if they don’t take money from Google to be the default search engine and they don’t take money to place advertisements on the default home page?

    • themusicman@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      Open source projects shouldn’t have “making money” on their priority list. I would donate to Mozilla if I had some guarantee that my money would actually fund Firefox development

        • themusicman@lemmy.world
          0·
          2 years ago

          I’m not one of those people, and to be clear I support for-profit companies open sourcing code. Mozilla is a unique case where donations are a tiny fraction of their income and Firefox development is a tiny fraction of their expenses. I just want to donate directly to the parts I care about (Firefox, MDN).

  • greedytacothief@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    Honestly, I don’t care. I don’t even look at that stuff, I just type in the bar thing what I want. Mozilla has to fund the project somehow.

  • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    Either that or they go bankrupt. Design your own browser and give it out for free if you don’t like it

      • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        on mobile, too, it looks like. on pc, i’ve only ever seen half that many, plus google pops in there if you switch your search default. click-dismiss and they’re gone. toggle a couple settings, done. they don’t come back.

          • festnt@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            2 years ago

            nah in firefox those ads can be disabled by unchecking a checkbox, in windows it’s probably not just an easy to find checkbox and i bet after removing the ads they’ll just come back after an update.

    • superkret@feddit.org
      0·
      2 years ago

      Depending on where you got Firefox from, default settings are different. Maybe your distro ships with these deactivated.

      • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Mozilla already has Scrooge McDuck amounts of money

        no. they don’t.

        the google money that they rely too heavily on, may not always be there. they need more diverse funding. these paid placements, which can be turned off, are one way to do that.

        turn off and delete the sponsored stuff at install, never see 'em again. it’s not like they’re microsoft or something, constantly turning that kind of shit back on with every-other-update.

      • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/06/mozilla-is-an-advertising-company-now/#comment-249969

        Preemptive subtwit.

        Let’s say you run a nonprofit animal shelter. And for some reason, some people feel you should be seeing hockey-stick growth, but the donations aren’t covering it.

        So you decide to start up a side-line of selling kittens for meat.

        Then you will inevitably have someone stroking their chin and saying, 'Yes, yes, but how could they afford to stay open if they weren’t selling kitten deli slices?"

        Some might say – maybe you aren’t an animal shelter any more. Some might say.

        • lamassu@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          It’s a real shame what’s happened to Mozilla. Maybe Trump will add browser software to the list of sanctions on China and we’ll end up with a Deepfox in a year or two.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 years ago

        While this analysis is somewhat convincing, let’s not forget that for now Firefox is all we have. Important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

        In my ideal scenario, Mozilla becomes like the Wikimedia Foundation. Which has somehow also accumulated “Scrooge McDuck amounts” of cash but seems to be on a firmer footing and better managed.

        • tempest@lemmy.ca
          0·
          2 years ago

          Serving Wikipedia is a different order of magnitude vs building a web browser

          • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
            0·
            2 years ago

            Okay but you mean which is harder?? Both projects rely on a bunch of salaried professionals supervising an army of volunteers. Firefox is a web browser, i.e. notoriously the space shuttle of software. But the Wikipedia is doing some surprisingly innovative and cutting-edge stuff with its own codebase too, as I understand it. Whichever is costlier, I’m not sure we’re talking about an order of magnitude of difference.

            • verdigris@lemmy.ml
              0·
              2 years ago

              I’m not an expert on either codebase but I believe the main driver of complexity with developing a browser engine is the sheer number of standards and how fast they change and multiply. Wikipedia has to update articles and maintain the server backend, which is no small task with such a global and comprehensive website, but Firefox has to do similar things on top of vastly more complex code with much more churn. There’s a reason Mozilla developed Rust as well.

              • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
                0·
                2 years ago

                Wikipedia has to update articles and maintain the server backend

                Firstly, updating the articles is the one thing Wikipedia doesn’t do, the army of unpaid volunteers does that.

                But as for “just maintaining the backend”, the Wikimedia Foundation does far more than that. It created and maintains and constantly iterates a huge pile of ever-complexifying frontend code - the wiki itself, discussion software, media tools etc - not just for Wikipedia but for a whole bunch of peer sites. Much of it is pretty cutting-edge, it’s used daily by many thousands of editors and there’s also the accessibility requirement. I know from personal experience that there’s nothing harder than front-end when you have to tick the accessibility box. No doubt Firefox’s technical challenge is greater but really the difference is not night and day.

        • lamassu@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          It’s amazing what you can pull off with free labour and CIA funding. I also find it funny how that donation banner still shows up every year when they’ve already accumulated so much capital.