It’s hard to think of a product like Firefox, which has been one of the shining examples of how a free, open source project can become prevalent and popular, would seriously consider the addition of in-browser advertising. Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening right now and as expected, fans have not taken kindly to suggestion, leaving Mozilla chair Mitchell Baker to defend the organisation’s decision.
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.
