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A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#91

Post by squiggleblaz »

Vinnl wrote: post #69
squiggleblaz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For clarity, that's Firefox Preview Settings not Android Settings. I would probably appreciate being asked since I tend to forget to close things - better to say "i want this tab only transiently, close it some time in the somewhat distant future (but, preferably, keep both transient and permanent tabs available)". Being asked to open it private is almost that. Still leaves me with ad blocking which is probably the t…

I don't think that's intended behaviour by default: I've never set this up, and links open in my regular session.

I've always assumed that, at some point, I must have fumbled and pressed "set as default" one time when it asked me. I regularly drop my phone, and fumbles that get me into settings I don't want happen occasionally. But it definitely used to ask me every time.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#92

Post by endothrowho333 »

hd4 wrote: post #41
geek-advised wrote: post #16

Is it me or this article is really vague? What's the new experience, exactly? Also, I started using Firefox on my Android phone because of 2 reasons: block ads and Google seems to be more and more for-profit and not for-users. And I love Firefox with one exception: when I press a link on another app Firefox doesn't open but gives me a small notification on the bottom the screen saying the tab opened in Firefox. I fin…

It's not you, I only opened the article to see if they had dealt with input lag and just lag in general and I get 6 paragraphs of unwanted marketing speak until I even get close to something resembling actual changes. If anyone from Mozilla is reading this, just get to the facts next time, don't insult us by throwing a ton of marketing babble at us, we don't care.

That marketing babble is there for the same reason the majority of YouTube videos are >10 minutes and filled with the same filler: Google's ranking algorithm.

For YouTube videos it's mean watch time. Filler babble pumps up those numbers.

For Google, it's mean read time. Filler babble also pumps up this number. However, it also ranks higher directly because it's considered a "long form" piece instead of a soundbite, and because it's more unique than similar pages (f.e compare all news outlets covering the same story -- it's all relatively the same).

Blame Google, for its algorithms that are directly shaping our communications and culture. Hell, blame all tech companies that use algorithms to determine culture (see: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, and yes, HN). Whether this is good or bad, is someone else's argument to write.

Mozilla, and every other website owner, must play the game in order to drive organic traffic to its pages through search engine optimization. Otherwise, you might not be reading this article right now, and it would be solely shared by word-of-mouth from people who check the site or are on a newsletter.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#93

Post by lscotte »

geek-advised wrote: post #16

Is it me or this article is really vague? What's the new experience, exactly? Also, I started using Firefox on my Android phone because of 2 reasons: block ads and Google seems to be more and more for-profit and not for-users. And I love Firefox with one exception: when I press a link on another app Firefox doesn't open but gives me a small notification on the bottom the screen saying the tab opened in Firefox. I fin…

Sounds like you turned on the tab queue option, try turning that back off.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#94

Post by vorticalbox »

silon42 wrote: post #53
jonny383 wrote: post #9

If Firefox pushes this before implementing support for extensions (namely uBlock or other ad-blocking / privacy extensions) then Firefox is well and truly toast on Android. Correct me if I am wrong but the only reason non-tech people use Firefox on Android is to block ads. Perhaps this is a push from Mozilla to try and get some search revenue flowing again?

I've tried Fenix a few times, and even without getting into extensions, it seemed like a regression in many ways.

How so? I loved the layout and the collections rather than book marks

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#95

Post by jerrtik »

kuschku wrote: post #78
ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"2014 - Ancient version" Sorry, but this mindset doesn't make a lot of good for the technology. It's not 90s anymore in terms of performance growth. The reason a smartphone from 2014 is considered obsolete is not technical.

If 2014 isn't an ancient android version and okay without updates, then why do you need updates for Firefox? You can just as well keep using the 2014 version of that, too.

Apples to oranges and no i won't be using Firefox when Chrome, Brave and Edge still support the "ancient 2014 android version"

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#96

Post by lscotte »

theon144 wrote: post #14

Wow, I am pretty surprised by this decision. I've been using Firefox Preview for a while, and while I do enjoy the new approach, I still regularly encounter bugs, including those that make me lose open tabs or other regressions for which I need to keep Firefox ("regular"?) installed. Not to mention the lack of addons (ad-blockers) and the fact that this announcement is completely useless and void of information. ("Br…

In addition to not supporting addons, preview also does not let you bypass warnings to access sites with self-signed certificates, and I need to do that.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#97

Post by losvedir »

fwn wrote: post #70
joseph2342 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it offer that Firefox does not ?

People here seem to "hope" that extension support will be implemented. If my stable Firefox for Android gets updated into a browser without uBlock Origin I will immediately switch to some chromish alternative with adblocking. There's no reason for firefox for android once extension support is gone, featurewise.

I use Firefox for Android for one reason: the ability to not load images on cell data. I'm surprised other browsers don't have that, but it's huge for me since I pay by the megabyte (Google Fi). It saves me $10/month easily.

edit: oh, it looks like that's missing, too. Nooooo....

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#99

Post by jerrtik »

lorenzhs wrote: post #4
severine wrote: post #2

Doesn't work in my (widely used) Android version. I'm a long time Firefox user and feel abandoned.

"Requires Android 5.0 and up" according to the Play Store listing. Android 4.x is from 2013 and had its last update in 2014. It hasn't received security patches since October 2017. Why should Mozilla continue to support such an ancient version?

> It hasn't received security patches since October 2017. Why should Mozilla continue to support such an ancient version?

Because ALL of their big competitors namely Chrome, Brave, Opera, and now Edge, support the "ancient" Android 4.x version.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#100

Post by terminaljunkid »

losvedir wrote: post #97
fwn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People here seem to "hope" that extension support will be implemented. If my stable Firefox for Android gets updated into a browser without uBlock Origin I will immediately switch to some chromish alternative with adblocking. There's no reason for firefox for android once extension support is gone, featurewise.

I use Firefox for Android for one reason: the ability to not load images on cell data. I'm surprised other browsers don't have that, but it's huge for me since I pay by the megabyte (Google Fi). It saves me $10/month easily. edit: oh, it looks like that's missing, too. Nooooo....

Plus ublock origin can save a lot of data.

I am on a slow university network and I keep JavaScript off by default using UBO. It takes 3 clicks to enable it for sites that really need it, but web is much faster with it.

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