I don’t want AI in my browser. I don’t want AI in my thermostat app. I don’t want AI showed into my face on every website I land.
It honestly feels like a plague worse than ads. At least ads I can block in various ways.
I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
661–670 of 782 posts
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#662Earlier quoted context omitted.
> no longer building software for their users but as vehicles to push some agenda All companies push an agenda all the time, and their agenda always is: market dominance, profitability, monopoly and rent extraction, rinse and repeat into other markets, power maximization for their owners and executives. The freak stampede of all these tech giants to shove AI down everybody's throat just shows that they perceive the t…
1. AI is generating a lot of buzz 2. AI could be the next technology revolution 3. If we get on the AI bandwagon now we're getting in on the ground floor 4. If we don't get on the AI bandwagon now we risk being left behind 5. Now that we've invested into AI we need to make sure we're seeing return on our investment 6. Our users don't seem to understand what AI could possibly do so we should remind them so that they u…
> where they don't see any way out but to keep going and hope that it works out for them somehow, for some reason.
That's the core issue. No one wants to fail early or fail fast anymore. It's "lets stick to our guns and push this thing hard and far until it actually starts working for us."
Sometimes the time just isn't right for a particular technology. You put it out there, try for a little bit, and if it fails, it fails. Move on.
You don't keep investing in your failure while telling your users "You think you don't want this, but trust us, you actually do."
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#663I think "nobody i know" and nobody are different things. Mozilla wants more firefox users. there are "AI browsers" and ai integrated browsing is becoming more and more the norm. Mozilla is doing the right thing here, the features are there but unobtrusive. But down the road, I fully expect Mozilla to do whatever they have to do to remain in the game. Their small market share is hurting the entire internet, they can't…
Mozilla really just needs to do three things: allow adblocking, have feature parity with Chrome, and render HTML correctly. Currently they've at least got one of the three.
They really need to work on making an easier transition from Chrome if they care about converting users. Add an out of the box (preferably default) option to make the tabs look normal and not ugly like they are now. Change the private window shortcut to Cmd(Ctrl)+Shift+N like every browser has standardized on. Also I swear they override the normal text input behaviour, specifically if I'm using option+left/right arrows to jump between tokens in the URL bar, it jumps my cursor to unexpected places, like at the wrong side of periods.
Tangentially related but I also find their devtools very lacking compared to Chrome's. They should straight up rip off everything Chrome does in that department.
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#664This is going to be disliked, but it's my opinion:
I believe being hardline on the organizations and products that actually respect users and choices leads to much worse outcome.
I'm using Firefox, Edge, and Chrome on phone and desktop. My main browser is Firefox on both, and I use the two others only when needed. I trust Mozilla to be more aligned with my needs than any company that creates a free tool to keep users in their ecosystem. Those companies are doing what they are supposed to do, and as a person, it's my responsibility to use what aligns with my values. But it's important to understand that I belong to one of the many nieche types of users, and if I expect Mozilla to only target my nieche, the userbase will shrink so much that it will be unsustainable, sounds familiar?
So, as a long-time user of Firefox, I generally and cautiosly trust Mozilla, I support them when they try new features while keeping the user in control, and I don't think the evolution of products have to be stopped because some of us are too stongly attached to the old ways.
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#665AI = local = cool
AI = cloud = insecure bullshit
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#666Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. AI is generating a lot of buzz 2. AI could be the next technology revolution 3. If we get on the AI bandwagon now we're getting in on the ground floor 4. If we don't get on the AI bandwagon now we risk being left behind 5. Now that we've invested into AI we need to make sure we're seeing return on our investment 6. Our users don't seem to understand what AI could possibly do so we should remind them so that they u…
> where they don't see any way out but to keep going and hope that it works out for them somehow, for some reason. That's the core issue. No one wants to fail early or fail fast anymore. It's "lets stick to our guns and push this thing hard and far until it actually starts working for us." Sometimes the time just isn't right for a particular technology. You put it out there, try for a little bit, and if it fails, it…
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Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#667Does anyone want AI in anything? I can see the value of navigating to an LLM and asking specific questions, but generally speaking I don't want that just running / waiting on my machine as I open a variety of applications. It's a huge waste of resources and for most normal people is an edge case.
The existence of the features doesn’t bother me. It’s the constant nagging about them. I can’t use a google product without being harassed to the point of not being able to work by offers to “help me write” or whatever. Having the feature on a menu somewhere would be fine. The problem is the confluence of new features now becoming possible, and companies no longer building software for their users but as vehicles to…
Microsoft has learned nothing from the Clippy [0] debacle. For that matter, neither have most website makers who constantly want to obscure a large chunk of the page with an AI chatbot that you cannot make completely go away. We really need web browsers that just quietly delete anything with a high Z-index.
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#668I want it, but I have ideas in mind that aren’t just a chat window bolted to a browser.
Once upon a time there was a popular Firefox extension called Firebug. Everyone loved it because it made web dev so much easier. Devs helped drive the adoption of Firefox because they preferred the easier dev experience over IE6, which meant websites were built for Firefox over IE.
We’re facing a new paradigm for dev with AI. Where’s the rebirth of Firebug built for this new experience to help drive adoption again? Make web dev much easier on Firefox and more devs will flock to it.
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#669Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly! I honestly can't remember the last time my window start menu search bar functioned as it's supposed to. For multiple laptops across more than 5 years i have to hit the windows key three to 7 times to get it to let me type into it. It either doesn't open, doesn't show anything, or doesn't let me type into it. I mean, c'mon, its literally called the fucking windows key and it doesn't work. As per standard Micr…
I was an insider user of Windows for close to a decade, really stuck with it through WSL's development... But the first time I saw internet ads on my start menu search result was kind of it for me, I switched my default boot to Linux and really haven't looked back. I don't really need Windows for my workflows, and though I'm using Windows for my current job, I'm at a point I'd rather not be. Windows as an OS really k…
It's quite the tale of poor decisions isn't it?
Microsoft could have made Windows privacy respecting, continued investing in WSL, baked PowerToys into the OS, etc. and actually made one hell of a workhorse operating system that could rival the mac for developer mindshare. They could partner with Google and/or Samsung and make some deep Android integration to rival Apple's ecosystem of products. Make Windows+Android just as seamless and convenient as mac + iOS.
Instead they opted for forced online accounts, invasive telemetry, and ads in the OS instead of actually trying to keep and win over the very enthusiasts that help ensure their product gets chosen in the enterprise world where they make their cash.
Now they're going to scrap the concept of Windows as something you interact with directly all together and make it "Agentic" whatever the hell that means.
I don't think their bet is going to pay off, especially if the bubble crashes. I think it will be one of the biggest blunders and mistakes that Microsoft will have made.
Re: I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla
#670Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. AI is generating a lot of buzz 2. AI could be the next technology revolution 3. If we get on the AI bandwagon now we're getting in on the ground floor 4. If we don't get on the AI bandwagon now we risk being left behind 5. Now that we've invested into AI we need to make sure we're seeing return on our investment 6. Our users don't seem to understand what AI could possibly do so we should remind them so that they u…
It’s also worth noting that non AI investment has basically dried up, so anyone wanting that initial investment needs to use the buzzwords.
In the 90s I did a lot of AI research but we weren't allowed to call it AI because if you used that label your funding would instantly be cancelled. After this bubble pops we'll no doubt return to that situation. Sigh.