Mozilla Debuts Firefox Extension that Recommends Content Based on Your Browsing Activity (venturebeat.com) 102
Mozilla on Tuesday began testing a Firefox extension that shows you its best guesses for what you want to see on the web. From a report: The Advance web extension is available for anyone from today and can analyze content on current active web pages to recommend related tidbits you may want to "read next" from other websites. It will also surface recommendations based on your recent browsing history in a "for you" section. With the extension installed, you just browse the web as you normally would and the little sidebar will show things that are relevant to what you've been looking at. The extension is powered by Laserlike, a VC-funded, machine learning-powered "interest search engine" that delivers personalized content. As such, Laserlike will receive users' browsing history -- something Mozilla wants people to understand before they install the extension. But the company has also built in some tools to boost control and data transparency.
Who asked for this? (Score:5, Insightful)
And please be **specific**....
Re:Who asked for this? (Score:5, Insightful)
The NSA and the GCHQ.
Re:Who asked for this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Some project team at Mozilla, same as the ones that want to ignore your DNS settings and route it all through their selected provider. Or the ones that forced pocket into the browser when it should have been an extension. Maybe even the ones who hilariously run this [mozilla.org].
Re:Who asked for this? (Score:5, Interesting)
If I had to guess I would expect Laserlike is paying for this, and is paying Mozilla to develop and promote it.
And that's fine.
It's an extension.
And it's pretty clearly disclosed what it does.
It's not something I would ever want; but its the right way to do it, and really its how pocket should have been done too.
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I agree pocket should have been an extension.
I will be irked if this extension is on by default.
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What do you think their previous business model was?
How was "Take money from google to make it the default search engine" any different?
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How was "Take money from google to make it the default search engine" any different?
It was different from pocket in that making google the default search engine doesn't involve adding code. Pocket integration is different from this in that it wasn't an extension like it should have been, even if bundled with the browser.
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no, companies that are willing to pay to have mozilla promote their extensions... is up to you to install then or not.
most people trust mozilla in to protect your data, so any of those companies will either to have a good privacy policy or pay even more for mozilla to recommend then
Imagine facebook recomending this extension... would anybody trust it? now look at mozilla or FSF recommending some extension? the feeling is for sure different (more for some than others, but totally different from facebook)
Re:Who asked for this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Then they will supply it pre-installed with Firefox downloads. Then to improve speed and performance, it becomes built into the browser.
Re:Who asked for this? (Score:4, Insightful)
And we can properly call that out when it happens. But right now, doing it as a separate and optional extension that is not enabled by default is about as reasonable as it gets.
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It's open source man. If they start adding this to the source then bitch.
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If I had to guess I would expect Laserlike is paying for this, and is paying Mozilla to develop and promote it.
And what kind of custom API support (or hooks) is Mozilla enabling to support this extension that they wouldn't for other extension developers who haven't forked over any $$$? Is it the kind of access they asserted isn't allowed / supported anymore with Web Extensions? I'm not saying this is something to argue over, but it would show where everyone is on the food chain... Hopefully, it's just a "normal" extension that *won't* come bundled with Firefox -- because, seriously, who would actually want this?
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Who asked for this? Anyone who misses StumbleUpon. It shut down in June and was extremely popular for a while. Users are willing to give up privacy, or ignore privacy policies, for extra lulz on the web. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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+1 to this!
If this extension is easy to enable and disable, (or even better, using the firefox containers, "open tracking and suggestion tab"), i can use it to search for info and debuging, we could find new hidden gens line with stumbleupon
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If they can do a better job of it than Google, I'm all for it.
Google *also* has access to all my browsing, as much as I try not to let them, and they make some hilariously bad recommendations despite all that info. "Oh, you're really big into astronomy and space exploration? Here's a horoscope (for a different astrological sign, not that it matters), a Nabiru conspiracy theory, some Apollo conspiracy theories, and some supermoon crap", "Oh, you watch Youtube documentaries on WW1? Did you know Obama is still
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Google *also* has access to all my browsing, as much as I try not to let them,
So Google has your "browsing history", or Google knows when you click on a Google search link or on News.Google.Com?
You do realize that even though Google shows the correct target link in the status bar, it actually front-ends the link to visit themselves before it forwards you to the target? Just because Google knows what you're reading (by a Google reference) doesn't mean they automatically know your entire browser history.
OTOH if you type "facebook com" and click on the suggested link, then they pro
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My privacy died a death by a thousand cuts.
There's searches. I use Google because they're actually the best I've found, and I don't bother using any of the "anonymizing" Google frontends because it's futile. All it would tell them is that I'm trying to hide.
There's Android. I do run Firefox on my phone, as gimped as the mobile version is, but I have to assume they get at least broad-level telemetry of what I'm browsing on mobile from their OS-level crap. And worst-case, they snoop my history on that, which
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Their bottom line. They need to bring on non-Google revenue somehow to keep paying for the redesigns and cutting of features
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I did.
I'm a Bigfoot porn aficionado and I wanted to see new sites but this extensions only shows me Sasquatch and Yeti porn, which is completely different.
After all I'm no perv.
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You should see what this extension recommended to me. I'm a fan of hentai, furry, tentacles, etc. You know, the normal stuff. But the things this extension recommended me will haunt my nightmares:
Monochromatic, black and white hentai mangas. The horror.
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Found the DNC's 2020 Presidential candidate!
Strat
Still No! (Score:4, Insightful)
>Laserlike, a VC-funded, machine learning-powered "interest search engine" that delivers personalized content.
Yeah. Sounds as legit as the ASK Toolbar.
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That description begins with finance, progresses through vague but tech-sounding buzzwords, and ends with exactly what everyone else already delivers: you know exactly in what order that company thinks (money first and hype second, with product as an afterthought). I guarantee you that they are Indians looking to turn tech hype into quick bucks.
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Why? After all, it's not like they're trying to hijack the DNS requests of their users or something.
No thanks ... (Score:1)
No thanks ... I don't want recommendations, least of all from a third
The usual question when we get a new gimmick (Score:2, Insightful)
How to turn it off?
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Probably a good idea - it would be a lot more interesting to get random selections from the web instead.
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As for pocket deleting the xpi over and over again after each update it spawns again like Freddy.
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser\features\"
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:3)
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StumbleUpon Successor? (Score:2)
So just as StumbleUpon dies, a possible replacement is brought to the fore. Interesting.
(no, mix.com is not useful)
You know what interests me? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yes the horror of Spotify suggesting music for you or Netflix/YouTube recommending shows or Amazon/eBay showing you similar/related items you may want. In theory I'd not be that opposed to this extension, but my biggest doubt is that I surf in many different contexts and putting them all in a blender would just get weird. So I expect that rather than being websites that suit my taste it'll be more like constant sponsored ads trying to cash in on whatever I'm looking at right now.
Re:You know what interests me? (Score:4, Funny)
Based on your eating habits, we suggest a sirloin-tofu-banana smoothie with skittles sprinkles.
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I fully agree with you.
To play devil's advocate here: Many people have tunnel-vision existences. They have no ability to think randomly or have any knowledge of how to discover new things. This may help those types of people.
To play God's advocate to Devil's advocate, this will be used in an attempt at controlling what people will see. It will hide things that are unpopular to The Powers That Be. It will be used to drive people towards economic activity that may not be in their best interests.
Meh. This soft
Hey, opposite...is opposite. (Score:2)
I'm looking at a news article about my local fire-fighters upcoming fire-fighters challenge event. It's on august 22nd. There's a video of last year's event.
Because I've read this article, I now know about the event, and have decided to attend or not to attend.
As a result, I have the information that I need.
So what magical insight-recommendation-engine is going to suggest that I learn more about an event that I just read from official announcements?
What do I want? I want an engine that correctly says "con
With random Milgram levels (Score:2)
How about a Firefox extension that sends an electric shock to anyone who knows enough about my browser history to recommend stuff?
Creepy... (Score:2)
The best thing about this extension (Score:5, Insightful)
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For now!
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The best thing about this extension is that you do not have to install it.
...yet.
Yeah, I want this (Score:4, Funny)
Lord help the relatives if I ever dropped dead without a chance to reach out theatrically as I took my last breath to nuke this app. That cute little sidebar would probably read like the subject catalog of YouPorn, with maybe a few categories thrown in even they haven't thought of yet.
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5 commits since last year (and only minor bug fixes), no new releases for 2 years... sorry to tell you, but "It's dead, Jim!"
Your only security protection is that is little known, but as it used webkit, you still get most of the same security bugs.... you are using a 2 years old chrome^W forget about it, webkit1 !! this is a many years old chrome.
Not saying that the design isn't useful, but the browser code is ancient... how useful and safe it is depends of what you use.
pr0n (Score:2)
Why do I need an extension that links me to pr0nhub? I already have it bookmarked.
What a horrible idea (Score:1)
Seriously? (Score:2)
It's like they're trying to make me hate them even more.