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Firefox, too, is beholden to the ad industry. That's the problem. They could get popular fast by blocking ads by default, but of course, they'd have no income
by PostOnce 5y ago
Firefox, too, is beholden to the ad industry. That's the problem.
They could get popular fast by blocking ads by default, but of course, they'd have no income then.
Nevertheless, there's a bunch of other stuff they could do to help their popularity that they aren't currently doing, I'm sure. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
- BoxOfRain 5y agoI still think if Chrome hobbles ad blockers it'll be a great day for Firefox. Whenever I set up a new machine for family members an ad blocker is one of the first things I install. It's not just to get rid of the digital pollution that most sites engage in now, it's also a security improvement to block ads.
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoIt's a problem indeed, but what is the solution? I mean the alternative to free and ad-driven is a paid service; what could a browser offer to make people (companies, consumers) pay for a browser? Ideally a subscription fee. I can think of a few things. The big one: Highly efficient, network-level ad blocking by default, as well as other nuisance blockers (newsletter sign-ups, cookie opt-in, etc). This one would be very popular since it removes 80% of the bulk and annoyances of the modern internet, but it would likely become problematic as they would get blocked by websites everywhere. Built-in VPN / TOR. Difficult because those get blocked a lot. I wouldn't want my computer to be used as a TOR exit node either if I paid a monthly subscription for my browser, putting me at risk for investigations by local law enforcement. Access to other services like e.g. youtube premium, again in the name of an ad free experience. That would require Google being on board with it though, and since their income is mainly ads they would be quite antagonistic.