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Their idea of accomplishing "user preference protection" is very modern, meaning designed to distract the user and steal their attention. It sucks. But the ov

Their idea of accomplishing "user preference protection" is very modern, meaning designed to distract the user and steal their attention. It sucks. But the overall goal seems to be user preference protection after all and in today's world where UIs are being unnecessarily changed on a weekly basis, less tech-literate people may not notice search engine change. Mozilla - company which gets about 90% of profits from Google - at least once pulled a global search engine RESET resulting in Firefox search engine being set to "default" which is Google's. If memory serves, they downplayed it ("so what? if you don't like Google, change it back") afterwards.

Semaphor 4y ago
> at least once pulled a global search engine RESET resulting in Firefox search engine being set to "default" which is Google's. Yeah, I’ll need to see a source here.
- soulofmischief 4y ago
  FWIW, I've used Firefox since version 1 and I've seen it happen personally more times than I can count. There's always some kind of excuse and in some cases I believe them, but it's happened so often that it's hard not to wonder...
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    I’ve been using a non-google search for around 5 years and FF since Quantum (which also seems to have been 5 years ago), I have never had it happen.
    - slowmovintarget 4y ago
      From time to time, Firefox Developer will prompt you to "get a fresh experience" by resetting all the settings to their defaults. It still requires the user to say "Golly, sure!" and click the button, but it resets everything. If you're paying just the slightest bit of attention, you don't click that button.
      - soulofmischief 4y ago
        I'm cognizant enough to know that is not what is taking place for me. I've used Firefox much, much longer than 5 years and it happens much less frequently now. I use Firefox across over half a dozen machines concurrently all day and if it's going to happen to anyone, it's me. It's honest-to-god bitflips/malconfigurations after updates or whatever. I want to believe it's not some secret deal with Google.
        soulofmischief 4y ago
        What do you know, today my default search flipped to YouTube Video Search. This is how you know it's just incompetence and not maliciousness.
      - Semaphor 4y ago
        But only if you stopped using it. I’ve only ever seen that when visiting my parents, as my FF there only gets used once or twice a year.
- autoexec 4y ago
  They've certainty done it when dropping support for search engines: https://www.ghacks.net/2022/02/18/mozilla-will-replace-the-default-search-engine-for-some-firefox-users/ https://www.ghacks.net/2022/02/18/mozilla-will-replace-the-d...
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    Very different from the FUD GP was spreading.
- hericium 4y ago
  > Yeah, I’ll need to see a source here. I'm not "sourcing" this information from any news site which I could share a link to, but from a personal experience. May have screenshots showing the issue but not where I can find them at this time. I was incorrect however, but not so much. The effect was as stated - my searches were going to Google which I have never previously visited on the browser and which I did not intended to share any information with. In 2020, Firefox version 80.0 (or a minor version under 80.0) introduced changes to search which included Google icon appearing as the first, pinned, position on shortcuts (Top Sites) list with a little blue magnifying glass icon sticked to it. At the same time address bar searches started going to Google despite DDG being configured as a main search engine. Google being inserted as a top position of "top sites" somehow made Firefox use it as a first dropdown position in address bar and all searches typed into the address bar were going to Google as it was the top choice. This was happening while DuckDuckGo was still set as the default search (this I didn't remember correctly - default search engine was not changed but ignored when using address bar) and the only way to remove this behavior was to enable top sites (which I had hidden), remove Google icon from new tab / top sites list and then it disappeared from search bar dropdown list. The fact which I think should not be ignored here is that Mozilla renewed their deal with Google just weeks prior to this "incident". This makes me think that this was an intentional not incompetent move.

Semaphor 4y ago

> at least once pulled a global search engine RESET resulting in Firefox search engine being set to "default" which is Google's. Yeah, I’ll need to see a source here.

soulofmischief 4y ago
FWIW, I've used Firefox since version 1 and I've seen it happen personally more times than I can count. There's always some kind of excuse and in some cases I believe them, but it's happened so often that it's hard not to wonder...
- Semaphor 4y ago
  I’ve been using a non-google search for around 5 years and FF since Quantum (which also seems to have been 5 years ago), I have never had it happen.
  - slowmovintarget 4y ago
    From time to time, Firefox Developer will prompt you to "get a fresh experience" by resetting all the settings to their defaults. It still requires the user to say "Golly, sure!" and click the button, but it resets everything. If you're paying just the slightest bit of attention, you don't click that button.
    - soulofmischief 4y ago
      I'm cognizant enough to know that is not what is taking place for me. I've used Firefox much, much longer than 5 years and it happens much less frequently now. I use Firefox across over half a dozen machines concurrently all day and if it's going to happen to anyone, it's me. It's honest-to-god bitflips/malconfigurations after updates or whatever. I want to believe it's not some secret deal with Google.
      - soulofmischief 4y ago
        What do you know, today my default search flipped to YouTube Video Search. This is how you know it's just incompetence and not maliciousness.
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      But only if you stopped using it. I’ve only ever seen that when visiting my parents, as my FF there only gets used once or twice a year.
autoexec 4y ago
They've certainty done it when dropping support for search engines: https://www.ghacks.net/2022/02/18/mozilla-will-replace-the-default-search-engine-for-some-firefox-users/ https://www.ghacks.net/2022/02/18/mozilla-will-replace-the-d...
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Very different from the FUD GP was spreading.
hericium 4y ago
> Yeah, I’ll need to see a source here. I'm not "sourcing" this information from any news site which I could share a link to, but from a personal experience. May have screenshots showing the issue but not where I can find them at this time. I was incorrect however, but not so much. The effect was as stated - my searches were going to Google which I have never previously visited on the browser and which I did not intended to share any information with. In 2020, Firefox version 80.0 (or a minor version under 80.0) introduced changes to search which included Google icon appearing as the first, pinned, position on shortcuts (Top Sites) list with a little blue magnifying glass icon sticked to it. At the same time address bar searches started going to Google despite DDG being configured as a main search engine. Google being inserted as a top position of "top sites" somehow made Firefox use it as a first dropdown position in address bar and all searches typed into the address bar were going to Google as it was the top choice. This was happening while DuckDuckGo was still set as the default search (this I didn't remember correctly - default search engine was not changed but ignored when using address bar) and the only way to remove this behavior was to enable top sites (which I had hidden), remove Google icon from new tab / top sites list and then it disappeared from search bar dropdown list. The fact which I think should not be ignored here is that Mozilla renewed their deal with Google just weeks prior to this "incident". This makes me think that this was an intentional not incompetent move.