Firefox with AdSense

Jesse Ruderman writes:

The adbar extension displays Google ads related to pages you view.

Now while this seems interesting, finding relevant related pages based on Google ads, isn't it going to be a bit biased based on who pays for ads? It's not like Google is just finding generally relevant related pages, it's generally relevant related pages that have paid for ads. I mean, if someone wants to find new websites, they can also use something like StumbleUpon, which isn't biased based on who pays the mulah.

Also, the ads are run in 'test' mode which means that basically, nobody pays for them and nobody gets paid.

Theoretically, if the Mozilla Foundation got an Adsense account, and viewing and clicking these ads were to donate money to the Mozilla Foundation, that would be particularly cool. I mean, hey, a lot of people would donate the screenspace if they could make a few $$ for the Foundation.

Unfortunately for that plan, the Google Adsense Program Policies state:

Client Software

A site or third party cannot display our ads, search box, or search results as a result of the actions of any software application such as a toolbar. No Google ad or search box code may be pasted into any software application. We may not accept sites that are associated with some types of client-side software or offer these types of client-side software.

(emphasis mine)

Alright, that kind of shoots that down. But perhaps Google would make an exception for the Mozilla Foundation because

1. We're non-for-profit
2. It's an optional toolbar that people can download; it's not forced onto people like it is with Opera

I think it's worth a shot, the worst thing they can say is no.