Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

blog.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 154 posts

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#141

Post by eatbitseveryday »

greiskul wrote: post #47
sandworm101 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are allowed. My work machine is locked into bing. I can bookmark google.com or duckduckgo.com but default/quick searches go through bing. (Google.com redirects to google.ca which drives me crazy sometimes.) I'd bet the majority of bing traffic comes from such workplaces.

If you want to use google.com without being redirected for some reason, you can use www.google.com/ncr (No country redirect).

Why won't it work for other locations?

www.google.de/ncr results in an error.

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#142

Post by ocdtrekkie »

bzbarsky wrote: post #138
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you 100% sure Yandex has not provided any funding to Mozilla? "Following our review in 2014, Google remained the default provider outside the US, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, China, and other regions where we had search agreements."

> Are you 100% sure Yandex has not provided any funding to Mozilla? I am 100% sure it has. But the point is that all search engines are willing to create these funding deals, so that leaves the freedom to pick the ones that you think are best for users.

The more accurate understanding is: All search engines are willing to create these funding deals, so you pick the biggest cash offer.

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#143

Post by bzbarsky »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #142
bzbarsky wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you 100% sure Yandex has not provided any funding to Mozilla? I am 100% sure it has. But the point is that all search engines are willing to create these funding deals, so that leaves the freedom to pick the ones that you think are best for users.

The more accurate understanding is: All search engines are willing to create these funding deals, so you pick the biggest cash offer .

If you're trying to maximize revenue, sure.

But the whole point is that Mozilla is trying to have revenue, obviously, but maximizing it is not a goal, as long as it covers expenses.

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#144

Post by putonyourshoes »

Psilidae wrote: post #94
jonnycomputer wrote: post #3

I feel like the quality of deep search is diminishing; either there is less free content on the web, or search has been optimized for something else; I just get the same results over and over, not matter what combination of search terms I used on a topic.

I agree. It's incredibly difficult to find anything that isn't a basic, low-value result when you're looking for advanced, detailed content. Maybe I'm looking up practices on how to write efficient SQL queries. All of the results I find are just slideshare presentations and basic blog posts on how to add an index to your select statement. It feels impossible to find depth nowadays, when everything that search engines…

Hi, I work on Google search. I'd be interested in any specific examples of queries that you think give worse results today than in the past.

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#145

Post by putonyourshoes »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #3

I feel like the quality of deep search is diminishing; either there is less free content on the web, or search has been optimized for something else; I just get the same results over and over, not matter what combination of search terms I used on a topic.

Hi, I work on Google search. Can you share any examples of the types of search queries that used to work better for you?

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#146

Post by mcbits »

yuhong wrote: post #102
sandworm101 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. I dont touch any MS products outside of work, and certainly dont want to sign up for anything MS-related. I'm and oldschool linux guy who still sees MS as the big evil. It will take them at least 20 more years before i trust them with anything.

And I don't like Bing and Edge Rewards and don't think they are a good idea either.

The maximum daily points add up to around $5/month. A little more if I used Windows and Edge, but it's not worth taking it that far. I just participate because I would love to see other sites adopt the concept and start a bidding war. Why wait around for politicians to figure out UBI?

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#147

Post by drewmate »

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #141
greiskul wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to use google.com without being redirected for some reason, you can use www.google.com/ncr (No country redirect).

Why won't it work for other locations? www.google.de/ncr results in an error.

Perhaps the German equivalent is "keinlandumleitenbittemöchteGoogleindiesemlandverwenden" or www.google.de/k ?

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#148

Post by frik »

Fej wrote: post #108

I wonder if at this point Google wants to keep Mozilla in the game. Their market share is low enough and it keeps antitrust regulators at bay. It looks bad if there are only two major browsers, one of which owned by a company which already got slapped for this very kind of monopolistic behavior. Sorta like Intel and AMD.

With Firefox 57, the UI changed to look almost identical to Chrome. The tabs are now boxy, not round anymore. The hamburger menu changed from the useful big box with big icons to a long menu that looks 99% like Chrome incl the unusual page zoom buttons in the menu. Now we may know why, Google is paying them again, after Yahoo deal is no more.

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#149

Post by Yoric »

Yoric wrote: post #68
amelius wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, Firefox could automatically switch to e.g. Duckduckgo whenever the user is in incognito mode.

I love the idea. Would you mind mind filing a bug on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ ?

(I should add that, while I work at Mozilla this is my personal view, not Mozilla's official view, yada, yada)

Re: Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.

#150

Post by dleslie »

putonyourshoes wrote: post #144
Psilidae wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It's incredibly difficult to find anything that isn't a basic, low-value result when you're looking for advanced, detailed content. Maybe I'm looking up practices on how to write efficient SQL queries. All of the results I find are just slideshare presentations and basic blog posts on how to add an index to your select statement. It feels impossible to find depth nowadays, when everything that search engines…

Hi, I work on Google search. I'd be interested in any specific examples of queries that you think give worse results today than in the past.

"Interstate 76 custom maps"

I'm sure it's confusing to your algorithms on many levels. Is it a map of the highway that I want? Oh, there's this game, let's add that too. What about some news about the highway?

I just want some new roads to frag on... I get one result with what I'm looking for.

Post reply on HN