Mozilla chairwoman defends the implementation of ads in Firefox

The chairwoman of Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit that funds the development of Firefox, last week defended the decision to pursue in-browser ads, saying that it’s important to generate revenue. “To explicitly address the question of whether we care about generating revenue and sustaining Mozilla’s work, the answer is yes,” Mitchell Baker, former CEO of Mozilla Corp., the subsidiary responsible for Firefox, and now the chair of the parent foundation, wrote on a blog Thursday. “In fact, many of us feel responsible to do exactly this.” Baker was responding to questions and concerns raised earlier in the week after Mozilla announced “Directory Tiles,” an under-development Firefox feature that would display sponsored thumbnails — advertisements — in the New Tabs page of new users of the browser.