I noticed site content links being introduced through my Firefox browser today. Apparently a browser extension called Betterlinks had been added by Mozilla in the latest updates. Betterlinks supplies alternative locations for content that may be in competition with your site by influencing your searching. My rhetorical question for the day is “Who gets to decide what links are supplied to visitors?” With many choices available through search engines, but only one through the http://www.getbetterlinks.com/ link, the deck is stacked against the competition, against freedom of choice and against the site visitor. I’m not sure where this browser application came from, who Mozilla included it, but it was certainly pushed to me without my real consent. The very nature of the application smells like it’s ripe for a good old fashion anti-trust lawsuit since it is essentially a brute force, pay-per-click application.
The good news is that you can uninstall it from the Firefox Add-ons Manager.