Mozilla developing Page Buddy, a chatbot built directly into Firefox
https://hg-edge.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/e73ce84b5e34Open linkView original on piefed.socialhttps://hg-edge.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/e73ce84b5e34Open linkView original on piefed.social
Can I just have one thing without a fucking chatbot?
I just switched to LibreWolf because I was getting tired of the AI bloat creeping into Firefox.
I'm with you. Please let this be something we can opt out of and not have laying dormant on our disks taking up useless space.
So annoying how they can be champions of being a non Chrome-based alternative but miss the mark so fucking hard. They will alienate their active users and fail at attracting new ones at the same time.
IIRC they had 2% of users, which makes it hard to go lower yet they achieve it.
https://data.firefox.com/dashboard/user-activity
2.26% of users as of August, according to StatCounter. This is the lowest it's ever been, beating the previous low of 2.37% in June.
Meanwhile, Chrome hit 69.26%, the highest I think it's ever gotten.
Remember Internet Exploder?
All it takes is a better product.
Firefox is heading in the opposite direction of "better".
Is Chrome getting better? It disabled adblockers, added AI, tracks everything a user does... And keeps rising.
People needs to start realizing Firefox losing market is 90% Google and Apple maintaining a duopoly. They only allow others to avoid lawyer fees.
I've been a Firefox/FF derivative user for two decades. Literally everything Mozilla is doing really drives me away from Mozilla products. Switching a tab-strip and extension compatible mobile browser into a crud-tab management, no extension mobile browser made me stop using Firefox as a mobile browser half a decade ago. Implementing all of this AI nonsense while increasing the CEO salary is about to drive me away from Firefox (And LibreWolf, which insists on bundling all of this in their browser).
I just downloaded Ungoogled Chromium and will take it for a spin.
if you're going to use chromium, you should use vivaldi.
all chromium browsers use the chrome store for extensions, so the option is either ublock origin lite or nothing. fwiw, my old ublock origin isn't disabled yet in vivaldi though so you might be able to sideload if you can get the crx.
my default browser is firefox/librewolf though.
Rocking extensions in firefox for android for years. Don't know what you all talk about
Good for you, perhaps you've modified your Firefox through the debug menu and curate your own collection of extensions on AMO?
Since you speak from a position of superior expertise, surely this is something you know all about.
I think you might have missed it, but if an extension is marked as compatible (by the developer) you can install extensions nowadays, no need to curate your own extension list. Here is the listing.
Link me a Mozilla source that confirms the change and we'll be one step closer to "Too late for me, I stopped using Firefox years ago and I'm not going back to a company that's actively drives me away from their other products (Tested Thunderbird, uninstalled after donation ads. Currently migrating away from FF/LibreWolf). I have no trust in their ability to make reasonable products anymore."
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/new-extensions-youll-love-now-available-on-firefox-for-android/
"This milestone marks the launch of a new open extension ecosystem on mobile where developers are now free to create and publish extensions and users can easily access and install them on Firefox for Android."
This has apparently been the case since December 2023.
That's fair enough. Unfortunately this came too late for me, I stopped using Firefox years ago and I’m not going back to a company that’s actively drives me away from their other products (Tested Thunderbird, uninstalled after donation ads. Currently migrating away from FF/LibreWolf). I have no trust in their ability to make reasonable products anymore.
Just straying further and further from their core focus. 🙄
Getting paid by google so they can say, "look! We are not a monopoly!"
I am only half joking, I like firefox and use it daily but mozilla really seems intent on destroying everything good about it.
After looking for more information about this, it turns out Mozilla is also working to add Google image search directly into Firefox.
@XLE no thanks......I want less Google in my life.
@XLE @Tanoh FF will be the new Chromium 😎
Pre release samples of the avatar:
But most importantly
He attacHe consume your data like a snac
Oh wow been using FF for decades, and never quite put a finger on what's missing. Was it the impossibility to use conferencing software? 😀NO I WAS MISSING A PAGE BUDDY! 😀 Whoever is the PO of Firefox, fuck you
I've been using Firefox since it was resurrected from Netscape Navigator, but man... it feels more and more like they don't want me to use it.
Fucking WHY? It's a fucking web browser! Do web browser things! Not shitty customer support things!
stop pls we just want xul extensions not llms and chatbots
WHY?
Thank god I use a fork of Firefox and not the base
Maybe if they actually prioritize wanted/long term features, they can actually raise user share.
I'm no dev but I'm bitter JS apps (as in Electron apps) only run Blink, no Gecko.
Mozilla removed chance for a competitor by removing official support for embedding Gecko.
I can tell. They’re certainly not working on making the browser faster.
I’ve been a Firefox guy as long as it’s been around, I’ve been shouting from the rooftops about how it’s faster since “quantum” was released. The last few releases have been sluggish and stuttery.
I recently had to switch to Chrome for a site that wouldn’t work correctly in Firefox. Chrome was incredibly snappy.
To be fair, I have a shitload of windows open with a shitload of tabs open in Firefox and I had like 3 tabs open in Chrome, two of which where like the “welcome” and “what’s new” built-ins
But uBlock Origin doesn’t work on Chrome anymore so, they can fuck off
Too many Firefox users remember "Bonzai Buddy" for "Browser Buddy" to be a good name
Safe bet, it's going to be opt-out not opt-in.
No matter what you think of Eich. The Eich era of Firefox/Mozilla was their golden years. I miss them.
I like the approach from duckduckgo, it's an option to open up, and keeps you anonymous.
I really like the chat bot built into the DDG browser. It's free, anonymous (proxied) LLM access. I don't see the harm in Firefox adding one.
If you don't want it in Firefox, there will definitely be forks that don't have it.