Mr. Q The Pizza DemonFirefox just updated and those shit eaters decided to add some ai slop search engine to the browser so make sure to go under your search settings and remove it like I'm about to.
El Duvelle@radicalrobit Ughhh why are they doing this???
Complexity of systems@elduvelle @radicalrobit almost certainly because perplexity paid them this is one of the major things that's being causing the gradual deterioration of Firefox Mozilla needs to fund itself somehow so it takes deals for things like search placement and they're being getting the vast vast majority of their income from Google so that the default search engine recently there have been trying to diversify their income unfortunately they're effectively ruining Firefox in order to do so
Rihards Olups@addressforbots @elduvelle @radicalrobit OK, so if I occasionally search in that stealing AI slop shop, but don't look at the results, they pay Mozilla?
That might not be the worst outcome ever =)
That might not be the worst outcome ever =)
@richlv not really, the LLMs / "AI" search also use a lot more resources than a normal search so we should generally avoid them...
@addressforbots @radicalrobit
@addressforbots @radicalrobit
@elduvelle @addressforbots @radicalrobit Right, in this case it's an extra bonus - one of the worst big players (even pissed off Cloudflare) loses some money ;)
@richlv
I mean that those tools use huge amounts of electricity and water so we should basically not use them, if they are not used they will stop growing and destroying the planet. If they see people using it they'll use that as argument for increased growth.
@elduvelle @addressforbots @radicalrobit On the other hand, they can survive for longer on the massive fund injections.
Sure, a couple of people doing it a few times won't make a difference... but it's the collective attitude that might ;)
Sure, a couple of people doing it a few times won't make a difference... but it's the collective attitude that might ;)
Peter@radicalrobit
This is why I haven't updated in years!
😊
Krzysztof Sakrejda@radicalrobit you missed a few further up the list...
Lynnesbian 
pre-LLM google: enter query, check out the first couple links, compare accuracy
post-LLM google: enter query, get an AI summarised result that is just accurate enough just frequently enough that it lulls you in to a false sense of security. after getting burned one too many times, you realise that you should read the summary, then check out the first couple links and compare accuracy
perplexity: enter query, get an AI summarised result that downplays the sources it used. get lucky a few times where it is (or seems) accurate, then realise it makes large mistakes, and crucially, there is no way to distinguish between accurate answers, hallucinations, or confident statements sourced from eleven year old sarcastic reddit comments. make a new habit: whenever you search perplexity for something you care about the accuracy of (i.e. anything), do a follow-up google search, read their AI summary, then check out the first couple links and compare accuracy
man this is so much better than the old way of doing things
Kristin (vis.social Admin)@lynnesbian @radicalrobit it's so exhausting. and frustrating...and an environmental nightmare...just to get more exhausting and horribly wrong answers.
shit! I miss functional search engines so much!
Thinking of scouring yard sales for old encyclopedias.
Primo@lynnesbian @radicalrobit am I the only one that reads "perplexity" as a bad omen?
I neither want a search engine, nor an assistant or whatever tool to be perpetually perplexed.
Would go hard as a band name though.
I neither want a search engine, nor an assistant or whatever tool to be perpetually perplexed.
Would go hard as a band name though.
Not trying hard enough 🌲@radicalrobit
Use LibreWolf
embix@radicalrobit or "perp" for short
The Tech Lord ⊕ `Lex Pendragon@radicalrobit I also found this checkbox when I went in to do that:
"Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups"
"Use AI to suggest tabs and a name for tab groups"
Alex@LexPendragon @radicalrobit and here I thought I had already disabled all the ML and AI slop Firefox shoved in.
Jax@alex02 @LexPendragon @radicalrobit I had to look into this since I hadn't seen this feature. This to me is the mildest thing ever and is fully on-device. I get not wanting AI, but this not a problem nor interrupting nor slop and they let you disable it. This screenshot is that entire feature.
@JaggedJax @LexPendragon @radicalrobit if that was the case there would be an easy way to opt out, disable the settings, and it be turned off by default.
@alex02 @LexPendragon @radicalrobit I think there is an easy opt-out. But I don't expect every new feature to be behind an opt-in setting and I don't personally see this as a problematic feature like all the other actual AI slop in the world that is also snooping on me. This is a local fancy keyboard auto-complete for a single word in an extremely rare situation.
@JaggedJax @LexPendragon @radicalrobit to completely disable any and all ml I had to toggle like 5 different settings with some of them being in "about:config".
Mobile Suit Larry@radicalrobit the only thing I have to say about perplexity is that if I catch a glimpse of the logo I think it's sleep token related for a second. AI one of the few things to make me sad it's not sleep token
dianaisnthere@radicalrobit
librewolf now
librewolf now
Stu@radicalrobit I'm going to need to keep a list of crap I need to remove from Firefox on fresh install, at this rate.
Corb_The_Lesser@radicalrobit I always disable all of those search engine macros when I install Firefox.
thirdimpact@radicalrobit
Thanks for the heads up!
Thanks for the heads up!
Allie@radicalrobit yet another reason to use @librewolf
Luna / Miika + Anni 
@nyovaya @radicalrobit @librewolf not much from what I recall. I think I tried them both a few years ago and landed on librewolf for one slight reason. Either is an improvement from Firefox.
@als @radicalrobit @librewolf Just tried it and it was available in my pkg manager :D
And it seems like it doesnt have the issue I had with waterfox a while ago.
Does firefox have an option to export all my data or do I have to do that manually?
And it seems like it doesnt have the issue I had with waterfox a while ago.
Does firefox have an option to export all my data or do I have to do that manually?
@nyovaya @radicalrobit @librewolf Librewolf has an import option that should find other browsers. If not then you may have to do some searching to work out how to export from firefox (Maybe it involves your profile folder but I'm not sure)
@als @radicalrobit @librewolf I figured that one but somehow it doesnt find my vanilla firefox profile qwq
embedded Vel@nyovaya librewolf's changes are very non-invasive and don't really affect UI/UX (apart from RFP ig)
@radicalrobit @als @librewolf
@radicalrobit @als @librewolf
AnttiI hate how they keep making it worse
Mr. Green 🟩@radicalrobit we need a good browser which respects users choice.
SarThe enshittification of Firefox continues unabated.
Jordan Biserkov@radicalrobit
And while you're there, replace DuckDuckGo with noai.duckduckgo.com - no account needed.
And while you're there, replace DuckDuckGo with noai.duckduckgo.com - no account needed.
Lauri KotilainenThe frustration on noai.ddg when you type something to the search box on the page, and it helpfully asks ”Try duck.ai?”
Like. Do they think people type the ”noai” url by accident?
Nausicaa Rose@radicalrobit I really wish Mozilla wasn't so deeply invested in making Firefox worse and worse.
Hair Cope@radicalrobit also you can go to https://mycroftproject.com/ and add search engines for things you actually want to use (wikipedia, archive.org, etc.)
Kagan MacTane (he/him)@apocheir @radicalrobit Thanks very much! For anyone who wants it, I just installed the no-AI version of DuckDuckGo from this page: https://mycroftproject.com/install.html?id=123469&basename=ddg_noai&icontype=ico&name=DuckDuckGo+-+no+AI
I didn't see any Page Actions "..." in the Location Bar, but maybe that's because I keep a separate Search Bar. The magnifying glass icon worked fine for me.
Lili@radicalrobit I'm perplexed how anyone thought such a thing was a good idea
Karen Alexander@radicalrobit Noooo! (Thank goodness we can remove it, though)
gen/Eric@radicalrobit Remove Google and Bing while you're at it.
Dave/Loebas 
@radicalrobit They even added a "feature" to chat to AI bots in the context menu. Luckely you can (still) remove it
LP🔸Just Another Winter's Tail@radicalrobit While you're at it, about:config, search browser.ml, you probably want to toggle off the enabled and chat.enabled options.
a very weeny construct 💀ha, i was wondering if firefox's addition of a new builtin search engine option would eventually land in mine since i put a bunch of custom ones in long ago and turned off google and such
went to see the list of ones i set up and perplexity is already added there, enabled by default, and i didn't even notice
not gonna feel a shred of compassion when servo obliterates mozilla's 2.17% market share
markus@radicalrobit wonder whether they could cut this shit the fuck out.
Jef Verbeeck@radicalrobit Vivaldi is now my main browser!
Justin@radicalrobit it is far more efficient to just remove Firefox...
skab@radicalrobit To be fair, you have to actively select the thing to be subjected to it, so you might never get in contact with it. And if you actively remove it, it's gone for good.
As others said, this is basically the only substantial way Mozilla gets money. If Firefox went under, all we had would be fucking Chrome.
Then again, if you're cynical, if Mozilla closed shop and Firefox would die eventually, Chrome would become a monopoly and Google would have to spin it off. Still I rather have FF
Kevin Karhan 
@radicalrobit generally consider moving to @torproject / #TorBrowser and using @monocles / #monoclesSearch instead:
Snow@kkarhan @radicalrobit @torproject @monocles Good luck using the #torproject for anything account related. I used #tor to log into my #github once and they completely banned my account. Tor will always be treated as suspicious against any tech company because of the amount of unfederated #abuse from the network. I myself have to unfortunately fight against tor because a lot of the exit nodes probe my servers, dos me and attempt to registration spam
@snow @radicalrobit @monocles granted that's #GitHub being assholes.
As for @torproject, they release the list of their Exit Nodes publicly.
- In order to circumvent said issues it's common to eother setup your own, personal & private Exit Node or use a VPN over Tor (ideally your own, self-hosted one!)
Granted, @mullvadnet can be used over #Tor [TCP/IP-#OpenVPN] and their service can be used, setup and paid for with #Monero and over Tor...
@kkarhan I would not host a exit node for tor considering you're liable for whatever is pushed over it. Learned that when I got a nice knock from the feds asking about csam luckily they just told me to not support the network that was after they did their investigation. Also using a VPN over tor kind of defeats the purpose of tor. Mullvad is nice But you're still treated as suspicious when accessing services but a lot less
@snow that's why it's called a "private exit node": It"s neither publicly listed nor acxessible and requires authentification and cinfiguration by the user...
- Besides there are some known "tor-friendly hosters" according to @torproject and their volunteers...
Granted Tor Exit Node operators being harrassed by givernments is sadly nothing new...
- Using a VPN terminating at a system you trust does workaround the few shit sites that treat #Tor as "bad"