WTF @firefox?!?!
Why am I getting sponsored content on my free browser (and I mean free as in freedom)
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2023
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If you want to turn it off, go to
about:configand togglebrowser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredandbrowser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredTopSitesto false (I'm not sure which one does it, but if you don't want sponsorships, I assume you don't want either).I'm also unhappy about it being on by default... Unfortunately, this is probably the fault of the state of the internet, how modern browser development requires to implement unreasonably many functions, making it impossible to anyone except a corporation like Mozilla — who wants to profit off it. If there was a better alternative, I would switch in an instant, but all the other browsers that have all the functionality I need are Chromium in disguise.
People always talk about an alternative, but that would require a massive open-source community to come together. And those volunteers willing to work on a massive legacy codebase could just as well be contributing to Firefox, reducing Mozilla's costs and need for ads.
Obviously, some might be more excited to work on a browser without ads, but respective Firefox forks aren't gathering manpower comparable to Mozilla either...
So, yeah, I don't think, hoping for an alternative is useful. We have to make the best out of Firefox.
@nour don't worry, I found it by going into settings>home page and unchecked sponsored shortcuts
I'm just a bit disappointed because Firefox is one of the few things I trusted to not give me ads constantly, I'm tired at this stage, but there's no better option out there
Well, the only shareholder of the Mozilla Corporation (which develops Firefox) is the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.
So, the MoCo essentially cannot pay out profits to anyone, meaning those ads directly pay for the wages of the people creating Firefox. No ads would mean fewer employees and less progress.