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?

[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?

[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.

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.

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?

[Darinbob]

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

The best thing about this extension

[OneHundredAndTen]

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

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.