17 Comments »

1. Mozilla’s best interest is whatever their users’ best interest is. They have always stated that the user comes first regardless how much money they get and they have shown commitment to this.

   Comment by Wladimir Palant — January 31, 2007 @ 7:03 am

2. [...] Still, this kind of common sense may not need to apply to somebody like the Mozilla Foundation. At the same time, it’s a well known fact that Windows hosts file and FireFox extensions like Adblock Plus are bad for the Google economy since the more people know about these workarounds, the fewer the ad impressions thereby translating into lower profits for the search company and the associated publishers.Now this may surprise a lot of people - though Mozilla earns millions from advertising revenue indirectly, they have included Adblock Plus in their list of most recommended add-ons for FireFox for users to block “intrusive advertisements” on the web. [...]

   Pingback by O’Flaherty - » How to get rid of your sponsors in one easy step… — January 31, 2007 @ 9:05 am

3. No, it’s not in their best interest. Despite the fact that people think ads are so evil, they click on them because there was something interesting in the ad ,making them do it. Just like with radio, tv, and other forms of media, ads work, and they work because advertisers generally know what people want. They are part of the internet and blocking them just deters internet growth.

   Comment by Eddie — January 31, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

4. While I certainly think every user has a right to do whatever they want to their computer, block ads or keep them, whether or not its in their “best interest” is debatable.

   From Mozilla’s standpoint — they need money. They may be non-profit, but they certainly still have significant expenses.

   From the user’s standpoint — no ads mean the web site’s owner doesn’t make any money off of them. I have thousands of dollars a month just in over head expenses. If there is no ad revenue then the users either have to pay a membership fee or the site just doesn’t exist.

   Comment by Andrew — January 31, 2007 @ 6:00 pm

5. No, ads are not evil per se, attention grabbing ads however are. That’s a very wide topic and I don’t want to discuss it all over again, just read the most recent article on this: http://www.somerandomdude.net/blog/opinion/sorry-state-of-online-advertising/. In the end I think that giving users a choice is a good thing, both for the users and the development of the internet (read http://adblockplus.org/blog/ethics-of-blocking-ads-part-3 on this).

   As to Mozilla: they had to operate long before the Google deal and they did. If Google decides to drop them (which it won’t because Firefox would still be too useful for them even with ads blocked by default) Mozilla will stay afloat with donations and other income sources. In the end their goal is not to make money but to serve their users best. If this goal happens to coincide with Google’s goals and Google is willing to pay - the better.

   Oh, and I am not all that sure that Adblock hurts Google. AdSense is the least sucky advertising service out there and it is the least likely to be blocked (I personally don’t have it blocked for example). If Adblock (Plus) gets more popular, it might actually convince more webmasters to use AdSense. And the users who have AdSense blocked don’t tend to click on ads anyway.

   Comment by Wladimir Palant — January 31, 2007 @ 7:57 pm

6. [...] I saw on another blog that Mozilla has placed the Adblock Plus add-on onto their list of recommended add-ons. At the same time, Mozilla is said to have brought in $72 million in revenue in 2005, most of it from Google Search ads. Is this hypocritical? I would say so. For those of us in this business, including Mozilla, ad revenue is very, very important in our ability to bring content to the internet. For Mozilla to play a proactive roll in helping people block ads only helps to cut a major source of revenue. [...]

   Pingback by Mozilla Being Hypocritical? : WebbyOnline — January 31, 2007 @ 9:03 pm

7. Bah,
   sorry to say this: some moronic statements up here….

   1st Adblock doesn’t block AdSense advertising, it blocks pop-up ads and banners on your choice(you have to block them personally)!

   2nd if the Scriptblocker was recommended than all the hell would broke loose because you don’t see many of the “intelligent” ads, between them the AdSense on all pages on the internet, except on the Google landing page!

   3rd I would like to see those blockers installed on Firefox by default! PERIOD

   My question is this: WTF kind of pro’s are you if you don’t even know what the hell are you talking about??

   Comment by Mayo — January 31, 2007 @ 10:31 pm

8. Users are using my website which I pay to have developed and run. It’s totally my right to have ads on it if I like and not the users right to block them. If they to use my information they see the ads, that’s the deal.

   Do you think TV networks would allow use to watch a full episode of 24 with the ads removed in between? They pay to have the show on their network and make money selling advertising. It’s exactly the same principal.

   Like the comments before, I don’t mind elite users having this installed because they won’t click on ads anyway generally, but I certainly do not want it to become mainstream.

   Comment by Damien — February 1, 2007 @ 1:02 am

9. Damien, this attitude of having to force ads down everybody’s throat, without caring whether the ads are targeted enough to be of any use or whether they still allow reading the content of your site without being distracted, is exactly what is pushing Adblock into mainsteam. As written in the articles I cited above - you can have ads and get some money out of it without annoying your users, but you have to do some more effort.

   Oh, and while your site is entirely your domain, my computer is mine, and I have the right to do anything with it that I like. Nobody can force me to download something I don’t want.

   Comment by Wladimir Palant — February 1, 2007 @ 5:06 am

10. My response is here: http://adblockplus.org/blog/mozilla-hurting-google-by-recommending-adblock-plus

    Comment by Wladimir Palant — February 1, 2007 @ 8:15 am

11. For all those that are comparing the internet to TV and saying that ad’s are part of the deal, have you heard of the TiVo? People aren’t watching ads on TV anymore. They are recording shows and skipping the ads. It’s the new way. We the viewers determine what we will watch not network or advertising execs. That’s why networks are having to move to more product placement. The internet is the same way. If a company is insistent on ads there are many techniques that can be used to make it very difficult to block the ads, and Google uses some of them.

    Comment by Andrew R — February 1, 2007 @ 1:06 pm

12. [...] Now this may surprise a lot of people - though Mozilla earns millions from advertising revenue indirectly, they have included Adblock Plus in their list of most recommended add-ons for FireFox for users to block “intrusive advertisements” on the web. [...]

    Pingback by Hacks, Information, and More » Google Recommends Firefox, Mozilla Recommends Adblock Plus — February 5, 2007 @ 3:28 am

13. [...] Now this may surprise a lot of people - though Mozilla earns millions from advertising revenue indirectly, they have included Adblock Plus in their list of most recommended add-ons for FireFox for users to block “intrusive advertisements” on the web. [...]

    Pingback by Techo blog » Blog Archive » Google Recommends Firefox, Mozilla Recommends Adblock Plus — February 6, 2007 @ 9:51 am

14. [...] Now this may surprise a lot of people - though Mozilla earns millions from advertising revenue indirectly, they have included Adblock Plus in their list of most recommended add-ons for FireFox for users to block “intrusive advertisements” on the web. [...]

    Pingback by pulanet » Blog Archive » Google Recommends Firefox, Mozilla Recommends Adblock Plus — May 10, 2007 @ 2:04 pm

15. Damien, you seem to not understand the Web. The Web experience is controlled entirely by browsers, not by servers. Browsers can display any content they want, filter any content they want, or change any content they want before displaying it. As a site owner you have no control over this whatsoever. If this is not suitable to you, then you should not put content on the Web. As you may have noticed, many large publishers put content on the Web nonetheless. This is because, on balance, it is still hugely profitable. But once they have put something on the Web, they have given it away for free. Think of Ads as a tip jar in front of a street musician. listeners may put money in if they enjoy the music, or not. Either way, the musician is giving the music away for free. The fact that you don’t seem to know this is unfortunate for you.

    Comment by Bill Hendrickson — September 14, 2007 @ 4:12 pm

16. [...] surprise a lot of people - though Mozilla earns millions from advertising revenue indirectly, they have included Adblock Plus in their list of most recommended add-ons for FireFox for users to block [...]

    Pingback by Google Recommends Firefox, Mozilla Recommends Adblock Plus | Etixet — February 9, 2008 @ 5:53 pm

17. I am getting adds on my yahoo email that covers up part of my messages. Yahoo responded by suggesting add blockers. what do you suggest?

    Comment by don anderton — May 17, 2009 @ 3:58 pm

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