Mozilla from bad to worse: starting with Firefox 92, the browser displays advertising camouflaged in the suggestions

Advertising in Firefox 92 onwards

This Tuesday, Mozilla He launched the latest version of your web browser with the main novelty of support for the AVIF format. I know that some of you will criticize me when I say that I have not used it for a long time because I have opted for an alternative with a small private part, the Vivaldi that offers so much to demanding users, but news like this only confirms that the company does not know how to reinvent itself. Of every two steps you take with your Firefox, one seems to be backwards.

The last thing is show advertising, although they have taken great care in the text where they talk about the function so as not to use that word. They also ensure that everything is respecting our privacy, but search suggestions include advertising, something with which they seek to obtain benefits from agreements with their partners.

Advertising for Firefox 92+ only appears in the US

This novelty is known as Firefox Suggest, and Mozilla defines it as a new feature that serves as a reliable guide to the best of the web and displays relevant information. For it, will use our location, keywords and show suggestions, which in other words is nothing more than personalized advertising based on both our area and our searches.

Logically, users are not liking this novelty at all, and some prefer to pay a subscription to see this type of suggestions that they come to label as "creepy". But the good thing is currently only appears to users in the United States, that and that can be deactivated from the privacy section of the browser settings.

Firefox has lost 50 million users in recent years, and I believe that movements like this do nothing but agree with those of us who have opted for other options. And, let it be said, that is bad, very bad, since it is the only open source alternative to ChromiumBut they have to take their flagship software more seriously and not stumble like this if they don't want things to get even worse for them. Who has seen you and who sees you, Mozilla.


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  1.   octavio said

    It does not work for me, until now I continue with Firefox, very well everything

  2.   pd said

    The website where this article is published (Linux Adictos) criticizes Firefox for including advertising, when this website itself includes three Adsense ad units and a contextual SeedTag ad in the first image of the article, all in the upper part that occupies practically the entire screen using a 2K resolution monitor , also displays an annoying (for many users) pop-up window asking for permission to receive notifications. There is even more advertising in the middle of the article content by including InArticle ads that force the reader to skip them to continue reading. The headline borders on the sensationalism of clickbait with that "Mozilla from bad to worse" (included in the title of the feed), along with the title of the page does not match the title in the subscription feed and of the article where it is included to attract attention and provoke a click and visit to this site.

    Firefox and Mozilla need some kind of funding to pay their employees who develop and give us a browser with a free, high-quality, free software license that competes against global tech giants who have abundant funding, use their dominant position in their profit against their competitors and use tax engineering to evade taxes globally.

    As a Firefox user, if this form of advertising that does not seem too annoying to me serves to cover part of the costs and continue its development, it does not seem bad, as long as it respects the privacy of its users, including being able to easily deactivate it if a user so wishes. For me, Firefox is still a browser that excellently meets my needs, much better than other options, including the mostly used Chrome, and one of the few that prioritizes that the web remains free and respects privacy.

    1.    Juan Carlos said

      Very well explained and I agree with you.
      For the author, I understand that your publication is personal, but I would also like to know your point of view, about Vivaldi's privacy and why you prefer to leave your data in the hands of Vivaldi instead of Firefox or one of its forks

      1.    mrgm148 said

        What a hairstyle they have put on the author, that's called hypocrisy

      2.    Diego German Gonzalez said

        Juan Carlos:
        Pablinux is not the owner of LinuxAdictos and has no decision-making power on the matter. And anyway, Actualidad Blog is a commercial company, not a nonprofit foundation.
        Brave is ad-supported, but you don't have to activate that option to see it
        And, it does not seem that the Mozilla Foundation wants to compete with the great global giants, rather that it is increasingly willing to tie itself to Google.

        1.    Amaro said

          In short, the problem is not whether it comes with advertising or not, the problem is that it is activated by default even though you can deactivate it. Tremendous problem clicking to deactivate an option.

  3.   vicfabgar said

    Clearly Mozilla has lost control ... Now when the version of Snap in Ubuntu 21.10 arrives, Trojan is going to burn.

    Greetings.

  4.   UseLinuxForPrivacy Only said

    I think the same as pd, it does not bother me that Firefox places advertising, I use Brave Browser on Windows and Firefox on Linux, and in Brave I leave the options to show me advertising activated, especially that of the background image that changes every time I open a new tab, well, that is what I am supporting them with so that they do not disappear and everything remains a monopoly of Google Chrome.

    Firefox I would like it to also place Brave style advertising, like the one I just explained above, it is not annoying at all, I see the advertising for a few seconds almost in full screen, and I am supporting the survival of free / open source software, and I do not see anything bad at that.

    I repeat, I think you were quite tough Pablinux, that Firefox does not have all the features of Vivaldi (which is what it specializes in), it does not mean that it is bad, the only thing that I do criticize is that the WebApps cannot be activated. Switching to Firefox on Android, it is one of the few that accepts the installation of extensions such as Decentraleyes, Privacy Badger, etc.

    Note: Here is an idea with which you can make an article, and that is that I use the "Profile Manager" of Firefox in Linux, the one that is activated by adding "-p -no-remote" at the end of the shortcut; Could you investigate if that still works with the snap application that we will be forced to use in the next versions of Firefox?

    Greetings.

    1.    UseLinuxForPrivacy Only said

      I just want to clarify that when I mean that I want to see advertising in the browser, that it is NOT personalized advertising like the one from Brave Browser, NOT like this advertising YES personalized like the one implemented by Mozilla, that this YES is invasive to privacy and extraction of data and that at that point I totally agree with Pablinux.

      I hope Mozilla rectifies this and places ads like Brave NOT personalized in your browser.

      regards

  5.   VAPG1974 said

    The only thing that could save Mozilla, in my opinion, is getting it back at the hands of Mr Eich.