Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: anthk Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Firefox wants a bit of ads+AI Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2025 07:59:08 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 47 Message-ID: References: <67bbecb3$3$14$882e4bbb@reader.netnews.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2025 08:59:09 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="de0705a08291ff4ea277c31e621370a6"; logging-data="1321400"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+HYdi3EBM4jlH/nBXwPdwv" User-Agent: slrn/1.0.3 (OpenBSD) Cancel-Lock: sha1:EKOSTbY01dEqiVr2f1hDq/ujKws= On 2025-02-24, Retrograde wrote: > From the «browser game is lost?» department: > Title: Mozilla once again confirms it’s all about ads and “AI” now > Author: Thom Holwerda > Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:42:27 +0000 > Link: https://www.osnews.com/story/141757/mozilla-once-again-confirms-its-all-about-ads-and-ai-now/ > > > We’ve recognized that Mozilla faces major headwinds in terms of both > financial growth and mission impact. While Firefox remains the core of what > we do, we also need to take steps to diversify: investing in > privacy-respecting advertising to grow new revenue in the near term; > developing trustworthy, open source AI to ensure technical and product > relevance in the mid term; and creating online fundraising campaigns that > will draw a bigger circle of supporters over the long run. Mozilla’s impact > and survival depend on us simultaneously strengthening Firefox AND finding > new sources of revenue AND manifesting our mission in fresh ways. That is why > we’re working hard on all of these fronts. > ↫ Mark Surman on the Mozilla blog[1] > > None of this is new to anyone reading OSNews. I’ve been quite vocal about > Mozilla’s troubles and how it intends to address those troubles, and I’m > incredibly worried and concerned about the increasing efforts by Mozilla to > push advertising and “AI” to somehow find more revenue streams. I think this is > the wrong direction to take, and will not make up for the seemingly inevitable > loss of the Google search deal – and my biggest fear is that Firefox will get a > lot worse before Mozilla realises advertising and “AI” just aren’t compatible > with their mission and the morals and values of the last few remaining Firefox > users. > > I don’t have any answers either, of course. Making a competitive browser is > hard, and clearly requires a lot of people and a lot of time. Donations are > fickle, nobody will pay for a browser, and relying on corporate sponsoring in > other forms than the Google search deal will just mean Firefox will become like > Chrome even faster, with more and more exceptions for “allowed” ads and > additional roadblocks for adblockers to try and work around. In essence, I > strongly believe that it is impossible to both earn money from online ads and > make a good browser. It’s one or the other – not both. > > There’s basically no competition in the browser space, and if we lose Firefox, > the only other option is Chrome and its various skins. Not a future I’m looking > forward to. > > Links: > [1]: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-leadership-growth-planning-updates/ (link) As Dillo 3.2 supports MathSVG, I don't need any bloated browser at all.