I woke up to ads in my new tab page in Firefox yesterday; sponsored links to Amazon and Nike.
Browsers don't seem to serve users anymore. They, like everything else, are mostly ad delivery mechanisms.
Browsers don't seem to serve users anymore. They, like everything else, are mostly ad delivery mechanisms.
edit: turns out I was wrong.
2nd edit: this used to be the case many years ago, thanks for those who confirmed
Our family Mac we got in ~2011 did show Apple as the new tab page, or at least the start page when you opened Safari after booting. However this must have changed in the last few (read: >5-7) years.
Pretty certain this is also incorrect.
My recollection seems to accord with the Wikipedia page on the history of the Safari browser which (although it doesn’t itemize the default StartPage for each version) doesn’t cite any inclusion of an AppStore link, as far as I can see.
I believe it is correct. It was back when we didn't call it a new tab page, but 'homepage' and it was set to an actual website.
Of course Safari defaulted to apple.com, what else was it supposed to default to?
I’m not sure how long they did that for, but like you said, what else were they supposed to do? It was a different time, homepages were treated differently.
about:blank until the user sets something else.
There are a list of alternatives in Safari that the user themselves can choose from, including Favorites, Frequently visited, and so on.
None of the choices are the Apple AppStore.
No - what other posters 'confirmed' is that www.apple.com was one of the choices that could be made for a new tab or homepage - absolutely not the Apple store as you said.
Worth correcting yet again because of what's become a knee-jerk 'but whatabout Apple?' in comment threads about Google on HN.
I think you're being pedantic if you say apple.com is not the apple store. If I wanted to go to the apple store I'd go to apple.com.
AFAIK the big ones have always been free, except for Netscape between 1995 and 1998.
Netscape was sold for $50 [2]
Opera was sold (can't find the price) [3]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Plus!#Microsoft_Plus!_for_Windows_95
[2]: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/netscape-navigator-2-0-hits-the-streets/
[3]: https://web.archive.org/web/20081013235150/http://my.opera.com/Rijk/blog/2006/02/15/rendering-engines-and-code-names[1]: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/internet-browser-market-sha...
there have been countless examples of watch-ads-get-X schemes. I remember back in the dialup era it was seen as a way to get online. (then fortunately technology and the market progressed and these died out.)
also, let's not forget that the browser market was always fucked up.
Ads should show you things that you needed anyway; things you wouldn't have known to look for, or didn't find when you did. Things that actually solve problems that you actually have, where you see the utility as soon as you see them.
For example, 45drives has their ads down. They contain nothing more than a little joke, a product image, and a link to their website. You'll know if you need it; they're not trying to market to you or convince you of anything. They know you will come when you're ready.
Advertising culture is currently extremely hostile and I hate it.
Firefox seems to be going everywhere at once, so it wouldn't surprise me to discover there is a 105.0.2 with ads, or that ads exist on a few regions only. But at least for me, the trend seems to be on the other way, they are backing down from that decision.
Wake me when I can't do that anymore (and point me to a decent fork).