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I feel like no amount of effort on a superior engine will be more effective than Google targeting their own browser for their own apps. The experience using bas

by ses1984 7y ago

I feel like no amount of effort on a superior engine will be more effective than Google targeting their own browser for their own apps. The experience using basic Google services like search on Firefox mobile is much worse. You get access to fewer features, like looking for shopping results nearby or setting your location for shopping results near by, and I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the technical capabilities of the browser.

eitland 7y ago
Send a note to your local antitrust authority/consumer protection/etc. I've already checked my options and will hopefully be submitting one or more notes now that I got some more time on my hands. If we all do the same it will be noticed. Also many agencies are already looking at Google and will probably welcome it. (Note: I don't hate Google, I just want them to get a lesson or two like Microsoft got. They still earn loads of money but now without trashing my chosen OS.)
derefr 7y ago
If Firefox really wanted to compete, they could just move web search features more thoroughly into native browser chrome, interacting with the search engine as a raw API provider (i.e. render the DOM in a floating document, then scrape the results out of it and display them in a special “search” URI-namespaced page—the same kind of page Chrome uses to display its native Google search bar!) This would basically commoditize the search-engine space for their users—all search engines would look the same and work the same, just with different browser-exposed features enabled or disabled per provider. So, for example, if Google doesn’t want to expose the ability to set a location, but does expose an API for doing so, Firefox could just provide a native-chrome option on their native-chrome search results display to set that parameter and search again. And, of course, while they’re at it, they could prune out the “sponsored results”, as well. Of course, they’d need to be prepared to lose all funding from Google at that point...
- ahartmetz 7y ago
  Not to mention get the APIs changed around to break Firefox...

eitland 7y ago

Send a note to your local antitrust authority/consumer protection/etc. I've already checked my options and will hopefully be submitting one or more notes now that I got some more time on my hands. If we all do the same it will be noticed. Also many agencies are already looking at Google and will probably welcome it. (Note: I don't hate Google, I just want them to get a lesson or two like Microsoft got. They still earn loads of money but now without trashing my chosen OS.)

derefr 7y ago

If Firefox really wanted to compete, they could just move web search features more thoroughly into native browser chrome, interacting with the search engine as a raw API provider (i.e. render the DOM in a floating document, then scrape the results out of it and display them in a special “search” URI-namespaced page—the same kind of page Chrome uses to display its native Google search bar!) This would basically commoditize the search-engine space for their users—all search engines would look the same and work the same, just with different browser-exposed features enabled or disabled per provider. So, for example, if Google doesn’t want to expose the ability to set a location, but does expose an API for doing so, Firefox could just provide a native-chrome option on their native-chrome search results display to set that parameter and search again. And, of course, while they’re at it, they could prune out the “sponsored results”, as well. Of course, they’d need to be prepared to lose all funding from Google at that point...

ahartmetz 7y ago
Not to mention get the APIs changed around to break Firefox...