Firefox does not block:
Ads shown on search engine results pages, including Google
Very cool Firefox
I’ve been using Orion (Kagi’s browser) on iOS for a while because it has uBO built in. It’s a fine browser (everything is just re-skinned Safari after all) and the ad blocking works as you’d expect.
It also supports installing Firefox addons, but I’ve found that to be buggy.
I’m kind of surprised that when it comes to iOS, Firefox is the last browser to introduce ad-blocking.
An independent developer even made a Gecko-based browser that runs in iOS and (once installed) has full uBlock Origin support without any hacks
Use a search engine with no ads. Google pays Firefox to be the default search. It’s not Firefox’s job to change how Google search works.
It’s not Firefox’s job to change how Google search works.
Mozilla chose to make it their job to block ads on iOS. The browser is a user agent. It should not give preferential treatment to any website
And this conflicts with their own principles: “Individuals must have the ability to shape the internet and their own experiences on it.”
Okay well Google’s search priority is reportedly 85% of Mozilla’s revenue. How do you think that influenced the product development conversation?
I imagine that ads rendered directly in HTML were off limits from the beginning.
It’s not just Google who gets preferential treatment. They also promise to provide special exceptions to:
Ads shown on search engine results pages, including Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and other search providers
These under-the-table deals obviously contribute far, far less (15%÷4 is much smaller than 85%, and that’s assuming they provide all the remaining revenue).
How do you think [Google money] influenced the product development conversation?
Well… There’s definitely a nonzero chance that Google is capable of manipulating the development of Firefox behind the scenes, and I consider that possibility to be disconcerting. That suggests Firefox is controlled opposition, either in practice or in effect .
Ya it makes sense to me. Google sets the standard as their money maker and they treat all search engines the same way to create a standard.
Is it an under-the-table deal, or a technical thing ?
AFAIK ads are delivered in search results in a different manner than they are on a regular website (that is, they are integrated in the search result).
While first-party ads (including on sites like Facebook and Reddit) are different than third-party ads, filter lists don’t discriminate between the two. Brave’s ad blocking engine (which Mozilla imported) is capable of removing all of them.
In other words, Mozilla is going out of their way to add an exemption here.
Yay. Can’t wait to switch back from Brave to Firefox.
