In a sense, yes. At an undisclosed time, Firefox will begin showing "new" users sponsored tiles on the tabpage. source One poster in the forum argues that Mozilla folks have to eat, too. But they already eat quite well from the money the receive from Google. But the problem for isn't that browser is monetized. This shows a decline in integrity on Mozilla's part.

Now why the quotes around "new?" In the developed world, there aren't too many people without internet. For example, as of Dec 2011, the internet penetration in the US was 78.3% of the population, which is actually less than most of the developed world. How many of the remaining 22.7% are young children or the elderly. The US does have more children as percentage of the population than say, the EU or Japan. I believe the internet penetration of emerging market economies such as Mexico ("officially" only only 29.4% as of Dec 10) is vastly under-reported, with the place being littered with crowded internet cafes and the continued growth of 3 and 4G wireless networks as well more deployment of cable and DSL internet. So again, what new users?

More specifically, you earlier said "initially" B. So in a little while it will be C or worse. Not much consolation either way.

It's strange that, when discussing about Firefox, no one says a word about the deep web.

More specifically, you earlier said "initially" B. So in a little while it will be C or worse. Not much consolation either way.

I doubt it'd ever be C as you phrased it. "Let's annoy users with ads without us getting paid for it!"

It's strange that, when discussing about Firefox, no one says a word about the deep web.

Does that have much to do with Firefox?

More specifically, you earlier said "initially" B. So in a little while it will be C or worse. Not much consolation either way.

I doubt it'd ever be C as you phrased it. "Let's annoy users with ads without us getting paid for it!"

FF has been doing it for about a decade now, proactively chasing users away, so that would not be anything new.

The company behind FF could get paid a flat rate for having ad-sponsoring in the browser, it could (additionally) get paid a click-through bonus, and they could accept money from advertisers from several particular countries, but I don't think that any combination of all these factors in whatever proportions would change the ad algorithm in the browser at all. From the app developer's point of view, it is likeliest to implement something that requires no special effort. As far as I know, ad-sponsoring only involves some algorithms that automatically connect to some places to draw links and images from there. That's it.

If it takes extra effort to make the algorithm operative in gradually more and more countries, I don't see, from the developer's point of view, much point with the whole ad-sponsoring scheme - it requires contant man-work to tinker, instead of providing a lazy stream of income. Therefore I think the implementation would be the opposite way: Make the algorithm operate exactly the same in every country, no matter if ad-sponsoring in some particular country provides extra revenue or not.

When the developer already went over the threshold of accepting ad-sponsored revenue, from there on the only thing that matters is maintaining the algorithm with the least effort. The developer would not move a finger to make extra moves in the name of some obscure foreign countries. And for Americans, all foreign countries are obscure, except maybe Canada, China, and Europe (that Europe is a country in their mind speaks for itself).

Consider Opera's ad-sponsored versions, for example (up to 8.5, IIRC). When you install such a version right now, would the ads light up or not? I guess they would. Yet the contracts on this ad-sponsoring have expired, have they not? (That's why they stopped with the ad-sponsoring, duh) So there, the company is not getting paid, yet the algorithm in the browser has a life of its own.

Consider Opera's ad-sponsored versions, for example (up to 8.5, IIRC). When you install such a version right now, would the ads light up or not? I guess they would.

I'm sure they could. Less sure they would. I'll try it later. :p