Mozilla Debuts Firefox Extension that Recommends Content Based on Your Browsing Activity (venturebeat.com)

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.

Comments

Who asked for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

And please be **specific**....

Re:Who asked for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

The NSA and the GCHQ.

Re:Who asked for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Who asked for this?

[vux984]

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.

Re:Who asked for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree pocket should have been an extension.

I will be irked if this extension is on by default.

Re:Who asked for this?

[Locke2005]

You mean Mozilla has finally discovered a business model: companies willing to pay them to subject their users to ads?

Re:Who asked for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

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/...

Re:Who asked for this?

[gman003]

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 coming to take your guns away?", "Oh, you've been searching for info on how Super Nintendo graphics worked and haven't found as much as you hoped? Let's fill that void with rants about SJWs ruining video games. I know you've got a Tumblr and voted for Hillary and probably actually *are* a SJW, but trust me, you want to read this.", "Oh, you're into Magic: The Gathering? Here's the results of the last big Texas Hold'Em tournament. Card games are all basically the same, right?".

Mozilla's also shown a higher willingness to consider privacy. Their existing "you might be interested in" system is strictly client-side - it downloads a small database, and then client-side determines which ones are relevant to you, so your history never has to leave your machine. I don't know if this new one will work the same way, but my baseline expectations are higher than for just about anyone else.

Re:Who asked for this?

[vux984]

What do you think their previous business model was?

How was "Take money from google to make it the default search engine" any different?

Re:Who asked for this?

[JMJimmy]

Their bottom line. They need to bring on non-Google revenue somehow to keep paying for the redesigns and cutting of features

Re:Who asked for this?

[drinkypoo]

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.

Re:Who asked for this?

[mikael]

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?

[higuita]

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?

[higuita]

+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

Re:Who asked for this?

[fahrbot-bot]

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?

Re:Who asked for this?

[nospam007]

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.

Re:Who asked for this?

[DontBeAMoran]

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.

Re:Who asked for this?

[vux984]

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.

Re:Who asked for this?

[grep -v '.*' *]

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 probably DO know you're going to facebook. I think Google sucks in as much as they possibly can, but I don't think they suck in EVERY single thing you do.

Re:Who asked for this?

[gman003]

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 I have set to sync with my desktops because that's really convenient, and now they've got 100%. I don't think they're that evil yet, but it's certainly possible. (They also get my location data, call history, and app usage, but that's not relevant to my browsing history)

There's their CDN. Tons of fonts, javascript libraries and web frameworks get hosted by Google for all kinds of unrelated sites. Maybe they aren't tracking that, but I wouldn't bet against it. Hit a random site, it's 50/50 whether something from Google loads. Probably more like 95% if you don't have adblock.

Finally, there's GMail. It isn't directly snooping my browser history but they get every link I follow out of an email.

So after that, I'd guess 70-80% of my browsing is in Google's hands. And I don't really know which 20-30% they don't have, so I have to assume they have all of it.

And I honestly wouldn't mind if they actually managed to do something useful with it. The whole concept of targeted ads is literally a joke at this point, their news suggestions are a crapshoot, and Youtube's recommendations are pathetic (quick study: of the 18 videos in the "recommended" right now, 12 are from channels I'm already subscribed to, 1 is from a channel I used to be subscribed to, and the last 5 are from channels who I have recently watched a video from). I can't help but feel like I could do better myself if I tried.

Re:Who asked for this?

[BlueStrat]

Found the DNC's 2020 Presidential candidate!

Strat

Re:Who asked for this?

[JackieBrown]

It's open source man. If they start adding this to the source then bitch.

Still No!

[Anonymous Coward]

>Laserlike, a VC-funded, machine learning-powered "interest search engine" that delivers personalized content.

Yeah. Sounds as legit as the ASK Toolbar.

Re:Still No!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

No thanks ...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

No thanks ... I don't want recommendations, least of all from a third party who wants to scrape my browsing history and undoubtedly plans to profit from it.

There's enough ad and analytics shit on the interwebs to block, I'm not signing up for more.

The usual question when we get a new gimmick

[Opportunist]

How to turn it off?

Re:The usual question when we get a new gimmick

[Z00L00K]

Probably a good idea - it would be a lot more interesting to get random selections from the web instead.

Re:The usual question when we get a new gimmick

[burni2]

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?

[Locke2005]

"Honey, why do I keep seeing all these gay porn ads when I'm using our computer?"

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[DeVilla]

"Um ... Well John ... I don't know? Russian hackers? Yah, that's it... Don't give me that look."

StumbleUpon Successor?

[Jezral]

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?

[smooth wombat]

What I choose to view. I don't need some lousy piece of software trying to guess what I want to view next or might be interested in, especially when someone else will use that information for their benefit. Hey, Mozilla, take your stinking software off me, you damn dirty programmers!

Re:You know what interests me?

[Kjella]

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?

[Darinbob]

Based on your eating habits, we suggest a sirloin-tofu-banana smoothie with skittles sprinkles.

Re:You know what interests me?

[strikethree]

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 software should not be distributed as part of the "base" browser. WTF Mozilla? We can see your activities and what they mean.

Hey, opposite...is opposite.

[holophrastic]

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 "congratulations on finding the first-party official web-site. there's no more information about this event that isn't derived from here or is just plain conjecture. you're done reading. just go to bed."

With random Milgram levels

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

How about a Firefox extension that sends an electric shock to anyone who knows enough about my browser history to recommend stuff?

Creepy...

[QuietLagoon]

... oh so creepy.

The best thing about this extension

[OneHundredAndTen]

The best thing about this extension is that you do not have to install it.

Re:The best thing about this extension

[Anonymous Coward]

For now!

Re:The best thing about this extension

[k.a.f.]

The best thing about this extension is that you do not have to install it.

...yet.

Yeah, I want this

[hyades1]

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.

Re:Glad to be a Linux user...

[higuita]

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

[farble1670]

Why do I need an extension that links me to pr0nhub? I already have it bookmarked.

Re:How times change

[DontBeAMoran]

Why? After all, it's not like they're trying to hijack the DNS requests of their users or something.

What a horrible idea

[dballance]

As if people are not already living in their own little bubbles as it is. This will just make it easier for people to only see and hear what they already believe. They should offer an extension that recommends diverse articles, not just the same thing people are already reading.

Seriously?

[Indigo]

It's like they're trying to make me hate them even more.