--- a/.hgignore
+++ b/.hgignore
@@ -140,16 +140,17 @@ GPATH
 ^testing/talos/include/
 ^testing/talos/lib/
 ^testing/talos/talos/tests/tp5n.zip
 ^testing/talos/talos/tests/tp5n.tar.gz
 ^testing/talos/talos/tests/tp5n
 ^testing/talos/talos/tests/devtools/damp.manifest.develop
 ^talos-venv
 ^py3venv
+^testing/talos/talos/gecko_profiles_out/
 ^testing/talos/talos/mitmproxy/mitmdump
 ^testing/talos/talos/mitmproxy/mitmproxy
 ^testing/talos/talos/mitmproxy/mitmweb
 
 # Ignore talos webkit benchmark files; source is copied from in-tree /third_party
 # into testing/talos/talos/tests/webkit/PerformanceTests/ when run locally
 # i.e. speedometer, motionmark, stylebench
 ^testing/talos/talos/tests/webkit/PerformanceTests

--- a/testing/talos/talos/config.py
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/config.py
@@ -431,16 +431,17 @@ def get_browser_config(config):
                 'test_timeout': 1200,
                 'xperf_path': None,
                 'error_filename': None,
                 'no_upload_results': False,
                 'enable_stylo': False,
                 'disable_stylo': False,
                 'stylothreads': 0,
                 'subtests': None,
+                'gecko_profiles_out_dir': '${talos}/gecko_profiles_out',
                 }
     browser_config = dict(title=config['title'])
     browser_config.update(dict([(i, config[i]) for i in required]))
     browser_config.update(dict([(i, config.get(i, j))
                           for i, j in optional.items()]))
     return browser_config
 
 

--- a/testing/talos/talos/gecko_profile.py
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/gecko_profile.py
@@ -61,16 +61,22 @@ class GeckoProfile(object):
 
         self.profiling_info = {
             "gecko_profile_interval": gecko_profile_interval,
             "gecko_profile_entries": gecko_profile_entries,
             "gecko_profile_dir": gecko_profile_dir,
             "gecko_profile_threads": gecko_profile_threads
         }
 
+        # when running locally, profiles will be zipped up, and also stored in a
+        # talos gecko profiles output folder, so they can easily be viewed later
+        if self.browser_config['develop']:
+            if os.path.exists(self.browser_config['gecko_profiles_out_dir']):
+                mozfile.remove(self.browser_config['gecko_profiles_out_dir'])
+
     def option(self, name):
         return self.profiling_info["gecko_profile_" + name]
 
     def update_env(self, env):
         """
         update the given env to update some env vars if required.
         """
         if not self.test_config.get('gecko_profile_startup'):
@@ -195,15 +201,23 @@ class GeckoProfile(object):
                 except Exception:
                     LOG.exception(
                         "Failed to copy profile {0} as {1} to"
                         " archive {2}".format(profile_path,
                                               path_in_zip,
                                               self.profile_arcname)
                     )
 
+        # we also want to keep a readable copy of our profiles so
+        # that we can view them in the gecko profiler without unzipping
+        # (only when running locally, in production the zip is uploaded)
+        if self.browser_config['develop']:
+            mozfile.extract(self.profile_arcname, self.browser_config['gecko_profiles_out_dir'])
+            LOG.info("Profiles are also available in {0}"
+                     .format(self.browser_config['gecko_profiles_out_dir']))
+
     def clean(self):
         """
         Clean up temp folders created with the instance creation.
         """
         mozfile.remove(self.option('dir'))
         for symbol_path in self.symbol_paths.values():
             mozfile.remove(symbol_path)

--- a/testing/talos/talos/run_tests.py
+++ b/testing/talos/talos/run_tests.py
@@ -141,16 +141,18 @@ def run_tests(config, browser_config):
 
     # fix paths to substitute
     # `os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))` for ${talos}
     # https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=705809
     browser_config['extensions'] = [utils.interpolate(i)
                                     for i in browser_config['extensions']]
     browser_config['bcontroller_config'] = \
         utils.interpolate(browser_config['bcontroller_config'])
+    browser_config['gecko_profiles_out_dir'] = \
+        utils.interpolate(browser_config['gecko_profiles_out_dir'])
 
     # normalize browser path to work across platforms
     browser_config['browser_path'] = \
         os.path.normpath(browser_config['browser_path'])
 
     binary = browser_config["browser_path"]
     version_info = mozversion.get_version(binary=binary)
     browser_config['browser_name'] = version_info['application_name']