Firefox 144 adds profile management... and AI slop search engine (www.firefox.com)

submitted 5 months ago by hello_hello@hexbear.net to c/technology@hexbear.net

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Perplexity AI Search in Firefox

On desktop, Firefox now includes Perplexity, an AI-powered answer engine built into the browser. Perplexity delivers direct, conversational answers to complex questions, helping you get quick summaries, accurate references, or creative inspiration without digging through multiple sources. It’s rolling out worldwide from the address bar via the unified search button.

family-guy-death-pose

lenin-rage Again I must go into my 100+ line firefox configuration and remove this shit.

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[-] footfaults@lemmygrad.ml 19 points 5 months ago

I'm sure there's something in about:config to switch it off

[-] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 3 points 5 months ago

You can remove it in the GUI, they just added it to the default search engine list.

[-] GoebbelsDeezNuts@hexbear.net 16 points 5 months ago

i just switched to firefox and saw this shit and feel like im just making the same mistake that i was making with chrome

do i switch to brave or what im too old i cant keep up with this shit anymore

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 50 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Brave has both crypto and ai slop with a chud CEO who got kicked out of Mozilla for being a terrible person to work with.

You just have to stick to firefox and remove all the garbo, there's things like ffprofile and arkenfox that help. You can also use the community patched version called Librewolf for something more ootb.

[-] GoebbelsDeezNuts@hexbear.net 36 points 5 months ago

im just gonna throw my electronics into the ocean where they belong and find a big rock to live under

[-] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 18 points 5 months ago

I mean if it's good enough for car batteries it's good enough for ewaste

[-] KnilAdlez@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

frog-no-pretext

[-] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

Someone has to charge the electric eels

[-] Kefla@hexbear.net 12 points 5 months ago

anprim-pat

[-] alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 5 months ago

Just use LibreWolf or smth

[-] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago

Just use Gleeb. You can find it on Bravo. It's on Harp! Get Renurch instead. It's easy, download Aardwark.

[-] alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago

What the fuck are you talking about?

stares in Heisenberg

[-] spectre@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago

Been using the Firefox forked Zen browser and been somewhat pleased and rarely displeased (a few bugs but nothing inherent to the design of the browser)

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

lynx

[-] Robert_Kennedy_Jr@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago

I've used Zen for about a year and recommend it.

https://zen-browser.app/

[-] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 15 points 5 months ago

This looks like they just added a new search engine option that you can remove via settings. Honestly, good for them. Perplexity is clearly spending a lot of money on marketing right now, and at least Mozilla is getting a piece of the pie.

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 0 points 5 months ago

Piece of the pie that the will then feed entirely to their useless c-suites while getting rolled by chromium each and every day as they feel the consequences of dropping servo.

Mozilla is going to feed Firefox garbage because they have no ideas.

[-] space_comrade@hexbear.net 11 points 5 months ago

Yeah this fucking sucks obviously but I kinda get Mozilla, they're really stuck between a rock and a hard place in this capitalist economy. On one hand you actually want to deliver a good open source project that's more or less privacy and user-control focused but on the other hand you have to sell your soul to the capitalist overlords if you want to support the development.

I fucking hate it but I'd imagine most Firefox developers hate it too yet they push on.

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 4 points 5 months ago

I wish I could believe this but if you look at their CEO salaries and corporate structure.... Yeesh I guess hard place in capitalism is right.

[+] Meltyheartlove@hexbear.net 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

[deleted]

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 16 points 5 months ago

Forks imply that the labor and expertise that Mozilla's engineers provide are replicated. This is not the case.

What we have are downstream distributions of Firefox, still beholden to whatever direction that Mozilla wants to take FF. This is why I'd still recommend using Mozilla Firefox with a profile configuration that sets everything to your liking since you don't have to trust downstream distributors.

[-] gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net 4 points 5 months ago

I'd still recommend using Mozilla Firefox with a profile configuration that sets everything to your liking since you don't have to trust downstream distributors.

This only applies if you know what every setting in your config does, and you don't use an install script. If you're blindly running a config script or copying a profile, you still need to trust a third party the same amount as you would for a downstream.

[-] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

True, but let's be real, if the Firefox devs ever decide or are forced to remove about:config, we are all truly effed in the a.

[-] blobjim@hexbear.net 3 points 5 months ago

Then you'll have to use GNOME Web lol. There's some people working on it.

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 3 points 5 months ago

It’s a search option from one of the Least Bad ai search companies and you can turn it off and remove the option to ever use it again.

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Reddit reddit-logo argument.

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago

Someone who stands athwart history yelling stop.

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

They are literally advertising ai slop search as a service that gives you complex, accurate answers.

But OK I guess ai slop is a historical achievement and not the result of an out of touch management who are creatively and technically bankrupt and have been declining for years, amassing a googles worth of dead projects and defunct ideas.

Mozilla Firefox is a google subsidiary that exists to prevent anti trust lawsuits.

[-] stupid_asshole69@hexbear.net 3 points 5 months ago

The flagship browsers of both other web rendering engines have some kind of ai search option built into them. At the very least feature parity recommends having the option.

The description you reference is how perplexity advertises itself. It’s the ai web search company in its own words.

[-] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago

Firefox now supports the Element.moveBefore API.

they really buried the lede on this one

[-] coolusername@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

Perplexity is CIA. They got funding from in-q-tel and the ceo openly attacks China for no reason.

this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2025

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