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New Search Strategy for Firefox

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#281

Post by ExpiredLink »

blumkvist wrote: post #146
briholt wrote: post #3

Anyone have any insights into this? From the outside it looks like Mozilla is parting ways with Google because of Chrome. Interesting they went with Yahoo and not Bing.

What's interesting about it? Microsoft killed the company which mozilla originated from. And they were created for the sole purpose not to let Microsoft has a monopoly on the gateway to the Internet...

> they were created for the sole purpose not to let Microsoft has a monopoly on the gateway to the Internet...

Created by Google. People often forget (or don't know) that Microsoft's IE once almost had a browser monopoly. Many online applications accepted only IE as browser. Surprisingly, Microsoft did not fight hard to keep the monopoly and even dissolved their team of IE developers. Google and 'their' Firefox took the opportunity. I never understood why Google created their own browser instead of tightening their already strong relationship to Mozilla.

Contrary to most opinions here, I think that Mozilla's decision is more likely the beginning of the end than a promising "strategic partnership".

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#282

Post by patcon »

geekam wrote: post #116
bad_user wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every intermediate layer that Google does not control is a risk to their business. Every intermediate layer that Google does control is also an opportunity for lock-in. Which is seriously starting to piss me off, as they are increasingly turning their back on open standards.

I remember I started moving out of Google's claws when they started pushing Google+ everywhere. Today my primary browser is Firefox, Search engine is DDG (with occassional Google search), Email is FastMail. The dependency on Google had started to annoy me.

Check out yacy, a distributed search engine :)

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#284

Post by xorcist »

drdaeman wrote: post #214
zaachary wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to rebut each mischaracterization, but I did work on Persona, so: > the BrowserID/Persona thingy that happily continued the trend that makes your identity owned by a third party Nah. You could happily choose any Identity Provider that implemented the protocol, including a self-hosted one.

Nope, that's a pretty common misconception though. You surely can own a server (I do) but you just can't own a domain. You're merely leasing one from a registrar. You see, I strongly believe identity's an intrinsic property of a person, and if you need a provider for one there's something really wrong with the setup. I'm completely fine with asserting notaries, but not providers.

> you just can't own a domain. You're merely leasing one from a registrar.

That is not true, in a very strict juridical sense.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#285

Post by agumonkey »

It would be nice to have search engine keybindings too. Stupid example Ctrl+K Ctrl+ to pick an engine (hopefully not too many starts with the same letter).

Even better, hell revolutionary : multiple search at once. /s/m

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#286

Post by [deleted] »

stephenr wrote: post #238
groovecoder wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Mozillian who also cares very much about open standards, I agree. Google has both a long and recent track record of helping to advance open standards - CalDAV, WebRTC, WebM, etc. - and I have no doubt they will continue to do so - e.g., Physical Web. However, Google's purpose in the world is not to advance open standards. That is Mozilla's purpose. That's why this is a strategic, long-term decision on Mozilla's…

Advance open standards? * Like how they were planning to require whitelisting for CalDAV access? * Like how they completely bastardise the IMAP protocol? * Like how they disabled XMPP federation and then dropped XMPP support completely, for their GTalk replacement?

[deleted]

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#287

Post by Yoric »

drdaeman wrote: post #220
Yoric wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how many users can do that? I'm pretty experienced, I know a number of the fingerprinting techniques that can be used to track me, and I have no idea how I can browse while avoiding them all.

You're right. But still, DNT is snake oil that only makes things worse by providing a false sense of privacy while not resolving any issue. And some fingerprinting issues that can't be solved by lone users could be solved by browser vendors. Let's at least start by doing something with those overlong User-Agent headers. And, say, limiting JavaScript capabilities on introspecting the environment.

Well, for one thing, this would Break The Web (tm). I assume that users of, say, TorBrowser would not mind, but I strongly doubt the greater public would accept that.

For another thing, these two measures would only force the trackers to switch to other fingerprinting mechanisms that are harder to turn off (ETags, canvas 2d/3d fingerprinting, CSS fingerprinting, etc.), so I don't think this would achieve what you hope.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#288

Post by k-mcgrady »

conradk wrote: post #127
geekam wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember I started moving out of Google's claws when they started pushing Google+ everywhere. Today my primary browser is Firefox, Search engine is DDG (with occassional Google search), Email is FastMail. The dependency on Google had started to annoy me.

Same here. I used to have Google Mail, Google Contacts, YouTube, Google Search, Google News, etc. I was feeling more and more dependent on one company's goodwill. A few months ago, I renewed my Fastmail [1] account for 3 more years, being very happy with the service. I use DuckDuckGo [2] as my main search engine and love it. I use Opera as my main browser. The only Google services I use regularly now are Android and…

How is Android without using Google services? Is there a significant impact on the experience?

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#289

Post by Yoric »

zobzu wrote: post #212
hackuser wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand you want to remain anonymous, but care to give us a clue about your credibility? Do you work for Mozilla? Google?

Given his comment i can say he works for Mozilla or worked for Mozilla or have good contacts there. What he wrote is 100% truth as far as I'm concerned. (i have good friends at Mozilla myself and that echo their exact words from 3 y ago)

Frankly, I doubt it, and I work at Mozilla.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#290

Post by Yoric »

agumonkey wrote: post #285

It would be nice to have search engine keybindings too. Stupid example Ctrl+K Ctrl+ to pick an engine (hopefully not too many starts with the same letter). Even better, hell revolutionary : multiple search at once. /s/m

I do * Ctrl + L to use DDG (my default search engine); * Ctrl + L "go" to use Google; * Ctrl + L "tlf" to search in my dictionary; * etc.

To set this up, lookup the documentation of "keywords" in Firefox.

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