56
Firefox 155.0 released
(www.firefox.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2026
56 points (98.3% liked)
Firefox
7495 readers
81 users here now
A community for discussion about Mozilla Firefox.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I have to point this out because I know a lot of people are going to look at the "Smart Window" feature as, "Ew! AI bad!"
Look at that screenshot showing the eSIM prompt result. It has no ads! That feature just bypassed Google's entire ad revenue business (not counting "ads by Google" that show up on non-Google sites). It searched on the user's behalf.
This is why I've been saying for over a year now that AI is going to kill free search engines. Yet I got pretty consistently downvoted for it.
Well, here you go: This is the beginning of the end.
Right now that feature uses a back end out on the Internet, but if you have a GPU with enough RAM, there's nothing stopping you from using local AI to perform the same function.
Eventually, PC hardware prices will drop again and this sort of searching will become normal. It's what everyone will use because it's vastly superior to typing something into a search engine.
Weird, I haven’t seen ads since forever, AI or no AI.
I'm wondering if something can be both, superior and dependent on the same thing 🤔
In the screenshot: "Searched the web with Exa"
Hey, I've heard of that company!
I'm sure you have an interesting explanation for how Google would be okay with Mozilla doing this, despite the ways Mozilla has bent over to appease Google the rest of the time...
I don't buy the "new normal" thought-terminating cliche nor the implication that Google and the other AI corporations didn't just internationally enshittify their own search, while selling a product in the early stages of the exact same thing (see also: Exa).
They expect to migrate to paid search because they see the writing on the wall when it comes to AI search.