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New Search Strategy for Firefox

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#311

Post by agumonkey »

Yoric wrote: post #290
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.

Pardon my french, but Dude, where did you learn about that ? I'm not the finest follower but I care about this kind of features and scroll through changelogs and missed this entirely. This is beautiful.

damn, the abstracted bookmark url is at least from 2006 http://www-archive.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/keywords.html

#dumbfounded

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#312

Post by toni »

ultramancool wrote: post #307
toni wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A while back I flashed my Nexus 5 with a CyanogenMod 11 build. I didn't install the GApps package afterward. One thing you will notice immediately is that the battery life lasts much much longer. With casual surfing, watching video clips, playing casual games and Wifi always on, the battery lasts for almost 24 hours. It looks as if this is what the original Nexus 5 should be. All those background Google services and…

And you can still use 3rd party markets like F-Droid and Aptoide.

Excellent point, completely forgot the invaluable F-Droid.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#313

Post by pmontra »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #288
conradk wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The only Google services I use on my Android phone are Maps and the Play store. Occasionally Drive and Docs because of a customer that uses them. I search in the browser. No sync. It works perfectly fine. But that's how I use Google on my desktop too. If you are used to more integration you won't survive that :-)

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#314

Post by netheril96 »

stephenr wrote: post #270
dang wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'll wait for the regular Google fanboy down votes" is baiting other users into downvoting you, and that is against the HN guidelines. Please stay on topic. Also, phrases like "about as much as I would trust a priest to give me a colonoscopy" and "the usual Google fanboy response" are inflammatory and inappropriate for substantive discussion, which is what HN calls for. Please edit such flamebait out of your comment…

If people down vote simply because I mentioned the concept of people down voting an opinion or fact simply because they disagree with it, then my point about the stupidity of the "don't mention being down voted" concept is proven true.

If people down-vote you, your words will have the connotation that they do it because that they are Google fanboys, rather than have a reasonable argument against your opinion. That is why such wording is not conductive to discussion.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#315

Post by amirkdv »

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.

Same here. FF + DDG + FastMail is a quite low action path away from Google for individual users. Migration took me only a day (FastMail's mass migration is truly a breeze) and after almost a year: no complaints (maybe minor wishes, but hey!).

EDIT: and K-9 (for Android) as mail-client.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#316

Post by netheril96 »

dhimes wrote: post #165
ricardobeat wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe your memory is failing you, but FF and Safari were still great browsers when Chrome first came out. Chrome took over slowly because of constant improvement, it wasn't much different except for some technical details and clean UI.

For simple pages Chrome was faster. But the tradeoff was that you didn't get things like MathML- which was important to- maybe- three of us. And iirc, SVG was better on FF (I did physics tutorial and animation stuff- I told people to use FF). Also, I still prefer video on FF. Chrome is choppier with a lousy connection or hardware. But Chrome is quicker to load a simple site which makes it overall a better experience…

I was one of the users who thought MathML was important. Until I don't. MathML itself is a terrible idea as no one can write a formula like that. Most mathematicians and physicists are already familiar with LaTeX, but the standards body have to invent an much more verbose language that only machines can read.

I'm happy with MathJax.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#317

Post by alttab »

Curmudgel wrote: post #218
dhimes wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For simple pages Chrome was faster. But the tradeoff was that you didn't get things like MathML- which was important to- maybe- three of us. And iirc, SVG was better on FF (I did physics tutorial and animation stuff- I told people to use FF). Also, I still prefer video on FF. Chrome is choppier with a lousy connection or hardware. But Chrome is quicker to load a simple site which makes it overall a better experience…

You should restart FF with addons disabled (Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled) and then compare the two. If you want a "passive web browsing experience" on FF, you could create a separate profile.

Or you know, use Chrome. That way, I don't have to consider what type of "web browsing experience" I need to have today.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#318

Post by xorcist »

drdaeman wrote: post #296
xorcist wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I don't know about juridical sense and I'm not sure there's one applicable worldwide. This is true in practice, though. "Your" domain can be seized, blocked or transferred to a third party, its lease terms can be changed to make it unaffordable - and generally there's nothing you can do to prevent this before this happen, since anything of this can happen without involving you at all . That is, because you never poss…

> I don't know about juridical sense and I'm not sure there's one applicable worldwide.

The statement is even less true then. I would certainly guess that in every country that leasing is a term, it doesn't match your agreement with your registrar.

> "Your" domain can be seized, blocked or transferred to a third party,

That is trivially true with pretty much anything, in pretty much any country. The police will take back a stolen bicycle and return it to a third party, for example.

But it is a system governed by rules. And so is the domain name. It is yours to use, and will remain yours unless you break the rules. In most countries you can challenge any stolen or revoked domain in court.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#319

Post by dragonwriter »

nikcub wrote: post #133
dragonwriter wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't forget that Chrome users are more tech savvy on average than Firefox users I somewhat doubt that. They're both mostly non-default browsers where they are used (and the places where Firefox is default probably have more technically savvy users than those where Chrome is default), Chrome has far and away more current mindshare and is, therefore, probably more likely to be a crowd-inspired (rather than technical…

> I somewhat doubt that Ask anybody that runs ads and they'll tell you Chrome ranks last in CTR. See also: http://chitika.com/insights/2012/web-usage-infographic/

I don't doubt that Chrome has a lower CTR, I just doubt that its particularly because Chrome users are more tech savvy.

Re: New Search Strategy for Firefox

#320

Post by dragonwriter »

nikcub wrote: post #133
dragonwriter wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't forget that Chrome users are more tech savvy on average than Firefox users I somewhat doubt that. They're both mostly non-default browsers where they are used (and the places where Firefox is default probably have more technically savvy users than those where Chrome is default), Chrome has far and away more current mindshare and is, therefore, probably more likely to be a crowd-inspired (rather than technical…

> I somewhat doubt that Ask anybody that runs ads and they'll tell you Chrome ranks last in CTR. See also: http://chitika.com/insights/2012/web-usage-infographic/

I don't doubt that Chrome has a lower (real or, even moreso, measured) CTR, I just doubt that its particularly because Chrome users are more tech savvy.

Tech savvy isn't the only explanation for CTR differences, especially measured CTR difference; ISTR a while ago discussions of what was possible in Chrome v. Firefox for adblocking, and from that it seemed that Chrome ad blockers would still download (but not show) ads, while Firefox wouldn't download them. Don't know if that understanding was accurate or if it is still the case, but that could conceivably result in Chrome impressions being overstated (and CTR being understated) relative to Firefox.

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