If they get much of their funding from Google, then I fear that the company that does no harm will eventually strong-arm Mozilla into disabling ad blockers.
My answer to that is for them to move off of Google search revenue, but they’ll need a decent funding stream to replace it.
I wish people were willing to donate more to the services they love instead of handing the reins to free-with-ads models. It’s like the drug we all can’t quit. And there is something to be said for being sustainably funded without ever-chasing growth.
I think Mozilla are keenly aware how important ad blockers like uBlock are to the core user base. And without users, Google isn’t giving them a cent either.
Problem is the current admin isn’t gonna give a rats ass if Chrome is a monopoly so Google can easily cut Firefox off right now with no consequences to themselves. At some point in the next 4 years they might realize that…
The US administration may not care. But the EU will.
While I agree, part of the problem is most people have limited funds… a matter only getting worse with price hikes. Even if you can afford it, you have to pick between this, maybe a Patreon or two of your favorite artists, some common subscriptions, etc…, people are likely to go with what brings them perks or services. Donations come from leftover funds when people are secure, something nobody ever has anymore.
Ad based revenue is basically the way you can include a large chunk of people in a world with vast wealth disparities. It’s that, or you rely on big donors.
Sure, but people are still paying, it’s just that the costs are passed down and obfuscated downstream. That burger you buy comes with a 2% advertisement premium. It’s not that people won’t pay with their limited funds, it’s that their priorities have shifted along with the mainstream model.
From the article …
Although many ad-blockers have migrated to Manifest V3 versions, these are generally less capable of detecting and blocking promoted targeted content.
Although Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari have all adopted MV3, they have done so with their own implementation modifications, allowing users greater freedom while still benefiting from the security enhancements.
Still, support for MV2 is the only way to go for older add-ons, and Firefox reiterated via an announcement today that it will continue to support it in the foreseeable future.
“While some browsers are phasing out Manifest V2 entirely, Firefox is keeping it alongside Manifest V3,” said Mozilla.
Glad to hear Firefox is doing the dual-support thing.
Firefox made a big mistake of breaking ad-on compatibility in the past. Let’s not make that mistake again.
If you’re talking about the protocol that allowed things like flash, that was the right decision and the web is much better off without it. It was a security nightmare and no functionality was lost in the long run.
RIP Autohide. Never used full screen again after Firefox version 4.
foreseeable future
sometime in the not-to-distant future, like when default search engine contract is due for renewal:
google: “remember when you tried a different default search engine? that didn’t go over so well–for you. your rep tanked and you bled users the entire time. disable mv2 or you’ll be paying us for the privilege of even having google search in your browser at all.”
