After reading a comment mentioning the issue again today[1] I did a few searches to see if anything had changed. I was surprised to find that the ads that show up for the search term "firefox" are links to Mozilla's own site: https://i.imgur.com/F9Ct4Tf.png although sometimes the malware ads still show up as well: https://i.imgur.com/oRpU5Mq.png

It appears that Mozilla, faced with a situation where many users were unable to install Firefox safely without getting malware, have decided to outbid the malware ads themselves, to try and ensure that their users get a clean download. The real Mozilla link is always the top organic result, so I can't see what other reason they would have to start bidding on expensive Adwords keywords.

Do Mozilla folk here know if the decision to start buying Google ads was discussed publicly? Is this a new policy? How much are they having to pay for this? Have they asked Google to take down the malware ads?

I find it hard to see this as anything other than extortion by Google: "pay us or your users get infected".

[0] e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8879229 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7335401 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7971201

Screenshots: https://i.imgur.com/Ote9c2k.png https://i.imgur.com/lzKU3FO.png and an older screenshot from back when the ads were more clearly marked: https://i.imgur.com/jX5Lt9F.png

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9193250