this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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Mozilla partner Perplexity advertised in search engine dropdown (lemmy.nz)
submitted 10 months ago by XLE@piefed.social to c/firefox@lemmy.world
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[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

"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.social -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.social 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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.

[–] XLE@piefed.social -5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.social 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.social 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You quoted a paragraph that links here.

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

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's a forum post where Mozilla is announcing their decision. And that links to an issues list where a request for Perplexity was posted. None of that suggests it was due to "positive feedback from the forums."

Regardless, whether the forums "support" it or not, I've pointed out how social media is a bubble and you can't draw reliable conclusions from how the comment votes or the amount of flames measure up.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 3 points 10 months ago

You are downright lying about the content of that post.

They are soliciting input.

Your input will help us understand when Perplexity adds real value... We can’t wait to hear what you think!

And the input is in that thread is far more negative than positive.

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 12 points 10 months ago

And down with AWS today btw lol

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 10 months ago

just go to settings > search and either uncheck (to disable) or remove (to remove)

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] XLE@piefed.social 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.social 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's a "new" chip, Mozilla adds that to every new feature nowadays. Also, most people don't know you can add a search engine in firefox.

[–] squigum@aussie.zone 7 points 10 months ago

Not sure if there's such a thing as a "good" AI company but I gather this is one that achieved its position via shady practices and is privately funded to serve ultra-wealthy interests.

Perplexity AI has attracted legal scrutiny over allegations of copyright infringement, unauthorized content use, and trademark issues from several major media organizations, including the BBC, Dow Jones, and The New York Times. According to separate analyses by Wired and later Cloudflare, Perplexity uses undisclosed web crawlers with spoofed user-agent strings to scrape the content of news websites who disallow or explicitly block web scraping.

Promoting companies like this is part of the more fundamental issue with Firefox's funding model. The Mozilla Foundation uses Firefox as a cash cow by doing deals with devils (chiefly Google), putting some of the money back into Firefox while the rest goes toward activities the foundation sees as forces for good. You might call that irony or ingenuity, or both, but we're stuck with it absent roughly five million users pitching in 50 bucks every year, at least based on current development costs.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 months ago

Ah yes, AI magical doohicky thing