So... what does this partnership actually mean? Will Ecosia be the default search engine once the deal with Google ends?
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2024
184 points (98.9% liked)
Firefox
18050 readers
78 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Mozilla is on a great tear. Layoffs, pointless rebrand, and now a shit privacy greenwashing search engine partnership. I'm so excited for the future of Firefox.
Which pointless rebrand? I actually like "moz://a".
Yea, but they changed to a weird flag thing (?) and a boring font logo:
At least they got this guy:
Oh well, at least the error animals are foxes and not a really weirdly drawn dinosaur
I'm waiting for Ladybug
I'm waiting for Netscape
Firefox WAS Netscape. Netscape was open sourced, rewritten, and released as Firebird (in reference to a phoenix’s rise from Netscape’s ashes). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mozilla_Application_Suite
I've been following Ladybird as well, and hope it comes to fruition. Without it we're kinda fucked.
I think there is suppose to be a an alpha coming this summer.
Oh great, shitty bing search results with tree NFTs.
oh no, don't take away Google results that fill the entire screen with ads and irrelevant bullshit that relies my stolen data before my actual search terms!
Ecosia being any better in this regard would be news to me. They also rely on ads for funding.
As if Google's results haven't been getting worse
Oh they've been getting worse for sure but Bing is still worse. I've used the Bing index via DuckDuckGo for years and it's quite bad.
I now use Kagi which uses both Google and Bing indices (among others) and it's much better and I think most of that is because the Google index is used.
I keep hearing about Kagi, maybe I should try it sometime.
DDG has been quite serviceable to me, however. If I can't find something I can just add a quick !g to my already existing query and look it up on Google instead, which I've found rather convenient.
If I can't find something I can just add a quick
!gto my already existing query and look it up on Google instead, which I've found rather convenient.
Yeah I used to do the same (but with !s).
It's much more convenient to just have good search results to begin with though. Kagi uses the Google index and a few others and you have your own filtering and ranking on top.
In the beginning I felt tempted to do !s a few times too but the results were always worse, so I quickly unlearned doing that.
Executing bangs is also a lot quicker with Kagi; DDG is kind of a slog.
but with
!s
Is that built-in, or do you have to configure it yourself? Configuring one is fine, but DDG has quite a few I semi-frequently use (!i, !g, !gi, !yt, !w, !gt), even Google itself feels like a downgrade when I want to search an image and I manually have to click the 'images' tab after performing my query.
It's much more convenient to just have good search results to begin with though
I agree, which is why I've been happy to continue using DDG.
Is that built-in, or do you have to configure it yourself
It's the official bang for Startpage. You can't configure custom bangs in DDG; Kagi can do that.
I agree, which is why I’ve been happy to continue using DDG.
I've found DDG/bing's results to be quite lacking.
It's the official bang for Startpage. You can't configure custom bangs in DDG; Kagi can do that.
Oh, like so. When you said "same" I assumed you meant Google as well, and I found !s to be an intuitive bang for that. Startpage makes more sense, I know they get their results through Google.
I've found DDG/bing's results to be quite lacking.
It seems our experiences have been different, then.
Ecosia, the "green" search engine with AI chat. Perfect match for Firefox, the browser ever more integrated with AI technology.
I've just given up on Mozilla, using Cromite after a decade of Firefox/Fennec on desktop and mobile had been such an upgrade.
Id still trust/prefer a firefox based browser than something chromium based. Their are a lot of good firefox forks out their and it helps make googles stranglehold of web standards slower. I wish u luck one manifest v2 gets killed (ik its still supported for some forks of chromium but how long is that gonna last?)
load more comments
(15 replies)
What exactly is the issue you have with Mozillas AI efforts? They use the technology in a private and sensible way as far as I can tell. Maybe I missed something they did.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Wouldn't this upset Google? (who is the biggest revenue source for Mozilla)
Mozilla will probably lose (part of or all of, it's not clear yet) Google's funding following their monopoly case, so it's probably best for them to look for other revenue sources.
They could also stop all this nonsense crap projects they sink money in without any real benefit, and focus mainly on the browser. This would give the browser likely 500% more funding than it has right now.
Have one product, but make it a perfect product.
So after constantly yelling at Mozilla for 10+ years they should do all kinds of things like a VPN, now we no longer find them to experiment to find alternative money sources?
The money sources are not the issue. The money sinks are. An no-one ever yelled at Mozilla to offer a VPN.
The money sources are not the issue
lolwhat
did you miss the part where mozilla depends on mostly google money to survive? which they've been trying to correct for years but failed? and now they're om the verge of losing most of it?
lolwhat
Did you miss the part where Mozilla spends most of their money for not the browser?
how much do you think chasing the web "standards" set by one of the largest companies on the planet without falling behind costs? ever wonder why nobody else has been able to keep up with chrome? also, do you think it's not important to ensure web standards are open and having the lawyers and lobbyists to prevent web standards to go to shit? do you think the only important thing is the actual application? firefox doesn't in a vacuum. if mozilla was just a bunch of computer nerds coding very hard to make a browser, it would've gone bankrupt and firefox would've died ages ago
i'm not even saying mozilla isn't doing anything stupid, it's just that it frustrates me how computer nerds always think the coding is the only thing that matters in a software project
I think Mozilla should focus on that. Yes. But instead they sink money in AI bullshit and other so-called "social" projects that have nothing to do with web browsers or their standards.
Focussing on the browser means focussing on web standards, too.
500% more funding than it has right now.
From whom?
Their financial reports are public.
Their other projects mostly exist, because those make money. The browser hardly does so, outside of the search engine deals.
Their other projects mostly exist, because those make money.
Except the projects that don't make money.
Oh, that's bad. Ecosia won't even give them a fraction of the revenue google does... I've no idea how they're going to continue going on...
view more: next ›