Mozilla's Firefox adds Perplexity's AI answer engine as a new search option | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
from ardi60@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 02:19
https://reddthat.com/post/52131998

#technology

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Resplendent606@piefed.social on 15 Oct 02:24 next collapse

Another reason not to use vanilla Firefox.

cecilkorik@lemmy.ca on 15 Oct 02:31 next collapse

Librewolf. You’re welcome.

paequ2@lemmy.today on 15 Oct 05:39 next collapse

Has anyone figured out how to automate updates on macOS (ew I know, but it’s my wife’s computer)?

Ghoelian@piefed.social on 15 Oct 05:49 collapse

I just use homebrew with quarantine disabled (otherwise homebrew will auto-update the package with quarantine enabled again, even if you installed it without).

I don’t like macs. Just have to use one for work.

paequ2@lemmy.today on 15 Oct 05:57 collapse

Aaah, ok. I read the docs at librewolf.net/installation/macos/#homebrew but got scared when I saw “flagged as broken”. I’ll give it a shot anyway, thanks!

Carighan@piefed.world on 18 Oct 07:15 collapse

Oh that's a fork that's explicitly about having less options for the user then?

lanky_ginger@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 03:23 next collapse

JFC Mozilla, I wish you’d stop packing useless shit into the browser. I’m spending more time with each install disabling stuff in about:config

ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com on 15 Oct 04:18 next collapse

I use librewolf via nix home-manager to declaratively configure preferences, plugins, engines, bookmarks, and policy settings. My librewolf configuration module is my largest config file by far… At least I don’t need to reapply it by hand anymore, but I really wish Firefox didn’t suck so much.

Here’s hoping ladybird is a success.

SSUPII@sopuli.xyz on 15 Oct 05:50 collapse

This is literally just one extra search engine selection.

pHr34kY@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 06:34 collapse

It’s funny that people get upset about one line in a config file that’s not even selected by default.

sramder@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 03:27 next collapse

Because it costs money to add shit nobody wants so we need sponsors, to add more shit nobody wants…

FaceDeer@fedia.io on 15 Oct 05:06 collapse

"Nobody wants" is false.

Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Oct 06:52 collapse

“Almost nobody wants”. Happy?

FaceDeer@fedia.io on 15 Oct 06:57 next collapse

Can you back it up with data? Or is it just what your bubble thinks? For whatever reason anti-AI sentiment seems very prevalent on much of the Fediverse, but the Fediverse as a whole is niche.

Alaknar@sopuli.xyz on 15 Oct 11:30 next collapse

Yeah, he asked, like, both his friends, and they were like “nah”, so practically nobody on the planet uses AI, man.

Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Oct 19:02 collapse

It’s not what I think, it’s just a template/funny answer to continue the discussion

FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au on 15 Oct 09:10 collapse

Outside of the fediverse echo chamber people absolutely love AI for things like search results.

snoons@lemmy.ca on 15 Oct 03:30 next collapse

🫥

root@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 03:32 next collapse

Ew. Also, LibreWolf.

Little8Lost@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 04:53 collapse

I prefer waterfox but i normally use them booth as they are awesome (one just with the basic addons and the other with all the addons i want but they could break websites)

goatinspace@feddit.org on 15 Oct 03:38 next collapse

Floorp

isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca on 15 Oct 05:18 collapse

I legit can’t get over the name, and the interface is buggy.

The name is either made to enounce the sound of a toilet plunger releasing its suction, or it’s meant to be pronounced “floor pee”.

I’ll pick Librewolf instead.

paequ2@lemmy.today on 15 Oct 05:40 next collapse

I never thought to read “floorp” as “floor” + “pee”, but now I can’t unsee that.

goatinspace@feddit.org on 15 Oct 06:13 collapse

It was buggy. Not sure what version, distro you got. Works fine for me.

jqubed@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 04:40 next collapse

I’m not upvoting out of support for this move but to spread awareness

FaceDeer@fedia.io on 15 Oct 05:05 next collapse

Whereas I'm upvoting because I support adding options. If you don't like it, don't use it.

jqubed@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 15:21 next collapse

I really don’t know enough about Perplexity AI to have an opinion one way or another, which is why I’m upvoting for awareness. I can’t say whether it’s a good or bad thing, although I’m not optimistic given the general trend of shoehorning “AI” in whether it makes sense or not, but I’m sure there are actually useful applications for the product and a better search engine could be one. I want actual search results, though, not a generated slop answer.

Limonene@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 15:23 collapse

Everyone already had the choice to use this before. You can visit any site with a search box, and add that site as a search engine to Firefox.

This is forcing it down people’s throats.

goatinspace@feddit.org on 15 Oct 06:16 collapse

Voting is confusing

Idontcare@lemmynsfw.com on 15 Oct 06:55 next collapse

Why must they keep digging into their crate of foot guns…

firepenny@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 07:06 next collapse

Why does AI need to be shoved into everything, honestly its not AI its just an LLM that summarizes your search, and plays as a yes man.

Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Oct 08:05 next collapse

It’s totally “shoved” when it’s just an additional option in the search engine sélection…

nialv7@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 08:20 next collapse

I mean, if this helps fund Firefox and is not too intrusive then I am fine with it.

tekato@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 20:26 collapse

AI has money and Mozilla needs it. Are you going to pay for Firefox development?

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today on 15 Oct 07:10 next collapse

AI-shittification begins.

alexdeathway@programming.dev on 15 Oct 08:08 collapse

It’s a search option, probably like how different search engines are present.

kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 15 Oct 05:13 next collapse

Once again Mozilla adds shit nobody wants and wonders why nobody uses Firefox anymore

FishFace@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 08:11 next collapse

People don’t use Firefox because it doesn’t have a global tech company shoving it onto people

rozodru@piefed.social on 15 Oct 11:10 collapse

I mean honeslty why use base firefox when there are much better forks of firefox. Floorp for example which I like.

If I want straight up firefox without the AI stuff then I’ll just go use Librewolf.

circledot@feddit.org on 15 Oct 08:16 next collapse

They should listen to Meredith Whittaker (German) the boss of Signal.

boogiebored@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 12:22 collapse

Link 404s for me.

circledot@feddit.org on 15 Oct 13:14 collapse

I changed it, should work now.

Treczoks@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 09:32 next collapse

How about not adding more AI shit instead?

chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 13:02 collapse

It’s just a search engine choice.

I agree with the sentiment, but this is quite possibly the least offensive idea Mozilla has had in a while.

Fizz@lemmy.nz on 15 Oct 09:51 next collapse

Good to see some diversification away from google.

berty@feddit.org on 15 Oct 10:33 next collapse

So it’s just another search engine option, they probably get money for that too. No big deal for me, I don’t have to use it if I don’t want to.

ColdWater@lemmy.ca on 15 Oct 10:52 next collapse

Fuuuuck mozilla

Alaknar@sopuli.xyz on 15 Oct 11:29 collapse

Can you read, mate?

It’s an optional choice for the search engine.

YOU decide if and when and what to send there. What’s the big issue here?

ColdWater@lemmy.ca on 15 Oct 13:17 collapse

No, I can

ohshit604@sh.itjust.works on 15 Oct 14:20 collapse

There are many ways, a popular choice would be managing your own recursive DNS resolver and then blocking the endpoint it contacts.

PiHole - Non recursive but offers blocking capabilities, can make it recursive with Unbound.

Technitium - Recursive but not nearly as user friendly as PiHole, also lacks the fancy Ui.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip on 15 Oct 13:50 next collapse

I get that Mozilla needs to keep the lights on but… yeah.

I’ve increasingly been meaning to switch to a fork. Anyone aware of a good way to self host a bookmark (and preferably tab) sync?

rikonium@discuss.tchncs.de on 15 Oct 15:28 collapse

I set up floccus but haven’t dove completely into it. So far it’s neat though.

Jason2357@lemmy.ca on 15 Oct 20:21 collapse

Floccus is so neat. Way more than just Mozilla’s sync.

NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip on 15 Oct 15:07 next collapse

Ones that work well take your natural language input, spend time searching and offer results. Not summarize anything. How well does perplexity work in that regard I wonder?

_g_be@lemmy.world on 15 Oct 19:27 collapse

I find that chatgpt and claude try to give you one answer and sounds mildly to very certain about themselves without giving references.

Perplexity actually gives reference links for each claim it makes, which I find better because I can check it’s work and fork off and explore further myself at any point along it’s reasoning.

As a definite AI Hater, I find it to be a good middle ground LLM / search engine

HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 15 Oct 15:34 next collapse

This is just a search engine option not some built in AI tool.

No issue here other than fuck AI in general. Just don’t use it.

Nalivai@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 17:30 collapse

The issue is them adding it to your list without user’s input or even notification. This is unpleasant behaviour that shouldn’t be normal, even if this time there is no damage.

BCBoy911@lemmy.ca on 15 Oct 20:51 next collapse

Boooooo. I hope Mozilla is at least getting paid a shit ton of AI money for this.

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 11:12 next collapse

I have no idea why they call it “integration”? It’s just a search option like any other search option.
Personally I have 10 search options enabled already, so this is number 11, and if I don’t like it, I will just disable it, which is dead easy to do, with a button for the purpose of changing settings right beside the search options.

I tried it for 2 terms I know very well, and the response was very good, but I would never trust an AI response without double checking.

letsgo2themall@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 12:21 next collapse

pretty easy to just remove it as an option. settings/search/ scroll down to list of search engines, click perplexity, click remove. If enough people do this, maybe they will get the hint.

Limonene@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 15:20 next collapse

How do I prevent new antifeatures from being added? How do I even know about the new antifeatures as they are added? Does Mozilla publish an RSS feed of each antifeature like this that they add, that gives a quick explanation of how to undo it?

letsgo2themall@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 15:47 collapse

idk if they have an rss or not. I always click the what’s new link when they push an upgrade.

Nalivai@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 17:27 collapse

Thankfully it’s easy to remove yet. But this sneaky automatic addition is still annoying.

TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 15:07 collapse

Firefox adding another search engine choice isn’t really headline news to me but cool I guess, especially if it’s another option that’s not Google?

I’ll continue using something else, though.

LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz on 16 Oct 16:57 next collapse

You can also manually add or remove search engines (at least in current Mozilla releases)

Nalivai@lemmy.world on 16 Oct 17:26 collapse

It’s not a search engine, it’s a random text generator disguised as an engine. It’s worse than Google, if you can believe it. We don’t need more shit that is worse than Google

Carighan@piefed.world on 18 Oct 07:18 collapse

Yeah it's pretty lame.

I will say in its benefit that if there is to be AI-summaries as answers to search queries, this has the right ideas: List your sources atop, even have a separate sources tab, include direct quotes where possible (though this feature is weird, I don't always get it, maybe topic-specific).

I still don't like it (just link me to the bloody source instead) but I know a ton of people who explicitly want those AI-summaries as their answers, and this at least exposes what was used to create the answer.

Rubbish, but on a conceptual level doing better.

Nalivai@lemmy.world on 18 Oct 11:49 collapse

My main problem with that, is that it actually doesn’t use the sources it lists. It does it sometimes, and other times the links have nothing to do with the generated text, and some of them might be also non existent, but because it’s not always wrong, it makes people complicit, nobody actually checks the sources, but believe it more because the links are there.