• FaceDeer@fedia.io
    8 months

    “Advertised” is a peculiar way to say they added a new default search provider.

    This is such a huge tempest in a teapot. It’s just a shortcut to let you put a query directly into Perplexity, like any other search engine. If you don’t want it there go to the search engine configuration menu and remove it, or just ignore it like 99% of people do with the other search engines in that dropdown they don’t use. But because the dreaded letters AI are involved and nothing baits the rage like those letters these days there’s headline after headline about this ridiculously trivial thing.

    • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
      8 months

      It’s not like any other search engine though, is it? Mozilla gave it a special position on their list due to money changing hands. But they had the gall to claim it was actually due to user feedback, a claim their forums do not support).

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
        8 months

        Mozilla has added search engines to their default list like this before for similar reasons of sponsorship. Google is the default search engine because Google paid Mozilla a fortune.

        How do their forums not support this? If it’s just that “it sure looks like everyone’s raging about this!” Bear in mind that social media is very bubbly, it focuses and amplifies whatever voices are the loudest and angriest. Look around one of the technology communities’ reactions to anything AI and you’d be hard pressed to guess that chatgpt.com is the fifth-most-visited website in existence currently.

        Got any actual survey information? I wouldn’t be surprised if Mozilla’s got some.

        • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
          8 months

          Why would you jump to this assumption?

          Mozilla points to the forums when they blamed users for wanting the inclusion.

          I don’t know why you would assume things that are the polar opposite of what Mozilla says.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            8 months

            What assumption? From the page you linked this is all that’s said about the decision to add the Perplexity search addition:

            Earlier this year, we gave you more choice in how you search by testing Perplexity, an AI-powered answer engine, as a search option on Firefox. Now, after positive feedback, we’re making it a fixture, rolling it out to more users for desktop.

            How does this indicate that the “positive feedback” was from the forums? That seems like an assumption you’re making here.

            • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
              8 months

              You quoted a paragraph that links here.

              I would encourage you to actually read the things you quote!

    • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
      8 months

      By the way, I don’t appreciate people who downplay the negatives of AI: I can’t lower my electricity bills or prevent environmental destruction by flipping a switch. I can’t avoid inhaling poisonous gases by setting an esoteric flag in an esoteric location in Firefox. It would be great if I could, but I can’t.

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
        8 months

        Are you saying that not only do you not want to have AI-related features in your browser, you want to stop everyone else from having those features as well?

        I don’t appreciate people who try to tell me what features I’m allowed to use. Especially on the basis of ludicrously overblown environmental concerns - AI is not a significant source of environmental destruction compared to a great many far more common human activities. Aim your crusade somewhere more productive.

        • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
          8 months

          FaceDeer, you don’t need to lie to people here about the environmental harm of AI.

          You can want your toy, but don’t deny it comes at the cost of raising everybody else’s electric bills and polluting everybody else’s air and water. Big Tech does not need you to be their evangelist.

  • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
    8 months

    Guess what? Along with Google, they’re all Mozilla partners!

    • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
      8 months

      Funny enough, Mozilla fails to acknowledge this. Instead, they blame the inclusion on “positive feedback” from the community!

      • Blisterexe@lemmy.zip
        8 months

        I know multiple people who use AI search, not having it as an option would be stupid of mozilla, whether or not you like it.

        • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
          8 months

          Those people always had the option to use those engines in Firefox. Mozilla didn’t need to explicitly add them, or advertise them more aggressively than they did when they signed a deal with Ecosia.