Mozilla Firefox: Firefox "Better Web with Scroll" Ad-Free Subscription

[engine]

Mozilla has launched a Test Pilot initiative called "Firefox Better Web with Scroll" to offer what it describes as "combining with Scroll’s growing network of ad-free sites to offer users a fast and private web experience that we believe can be our future."

By engaging with a better funding model, sites in their growing network no longer have to show you ads to make money. They can focus on quality not clicks. Firefox Better Web with Scroll gives you the fast, private web you want and supports publishers at the same time.

To try the Firefox Better Web online experience, Firefox users simply sign up for a Firefox account and install a web extension. As a Test Pilot, it will only be available in the US. The membership is 50% off for the first six months at $2.50 per month. This goes directly to fund publishers and writers, and in early tests we’ve found that sites make at least 40% more money than they would have made from showing you ads.

[blog.mozilla.org...]

[lammert]

Firefox seems to have unleashed a war against third parties. Not only against third party trackers but now also against third party content. But the war against third party content may be harder to win than the trackers' war.

Wisely selected third-party content in the form of ads may ad value to a site by giving visitors alternative paths for their browse journey. Third-party content is also a concept that has been accepted for a long time. Newspapers use ads already for more than a century as a supplement to their editorial content while at the same time reducing or eliminating subscription costs. Granted, newspaper ads don't use flashy techniques, pop-up in front of the editorial content or do other nasty stuff, but fighting the concept of ads itself may be a hard battle to win. Especially if the fight comes at a price paid in hard dollars every month.

[tangor]

Come join my walled garden and pay monthly for the privilege.

Is this an attempt to rebuild the AOL style empire?

Bwahahahahaha!

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I wonder how many will take up this option. I doubt I will.

There have been a number of alternatives to funding sites. Even Google had an alternative to AdSense with Funding Choices and Contributor [webmasterworld.com] and, of course, the other subscription services around, such as [webmasterworld.com...]

It may well be an alternative, especially for smaller publishers, and with advertising revenues being challenged every day.