That whole post they didn't even have one sentence that clearly states what theyre doing. I assume it's "now we'll make Ecosia one of the default choices".
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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It's not in Firefox mobile.
Sure, I could probably find the URLs to add it in at a new custom search engine. But if you're gonna make such a bombastic announcement, I expect you to have the update ready beforehand.
Do they not realize that mobile is most Web traffic nowadays?
It's in Mull on Android which is the browser I use the most. It's basically Firefox but with privacy turned up and no Mozilla telemetry.
In that case, Aloha Browser implemented Ecosia eons ago which is a very popular mobile browser among Asians due to its ability to download video like the right-click contextual menus in desktop browsers… however, YouTube is an exception.
I'm trying to avoid Chromium clones altogether. I really don't like the engine quasi-monopoly we have and I don't want to participate in furthering it.
If you’re on desktop, am actually using Zen Browser that’s based on BetterFox (FireFox) with uBlock Origin and Startpage.
Ecosia sounds like a company worth supporting. I wish they'd offer a paid, ad-free plan.
How does it compare to Kagi, anyone used both?
I switched from Kagi to Qwant because they'll be collabing with Ecosia on their own index. Quality of results is, sadly, worse (uBlacklist helps somewhat), but I don't want to support Kagi because they're expanding their partnership with Yandex and funneling money to Kremlin.
Source?
They pay for access to yandex's indexes to help provide their search product. Whether you consider that "funneling money to the Kremlin" or not is up to you.
Kagi seems like a circus. Search quality? It's interesting. Worth supporting? Up to you, but know that your money will still go to actual search result providers first, and what's left goes to people who care more about shirts than privacy.
Quality is pretty good though. Have been using it for about a year. I'd like to find a non-profit search and pay for that instead though. Ecosia comes close in some regards but I don't see an ad-free option.
For me, Startpage has been the goat.
Haven't used kagi, but ecosia is another bing fronted.
It's duckduckgo, but the profits from the ads are used to plant trees.
If you need/want something like kagi, only kagi exists at the moment. There is nothing comparable in quality and features
If you still want to throw some money at them, they have a store where you can buy some merch and plant a tree
Unless they make Ecosia the default search engine in Firefox, this is worthless.
This is preparation for that in case google loses its appeal and is forbidden to pay Firefox to be the default.
Am I wrong for hoping that happens?
Idk, on one hand I get what you mean. On the other hand, Firefox going away or being monetized in more aggressive ways will not be a good thing.
Honestly, I think I would prefer the lawsuit never happened and Google kept paying Firefox. Now, if Google loses, Firefox will likely head for enshitification. And if google wins, it sets terrible precedent :(
As long as we're making wish lists, I wish Mozilla beat Proton to the punch in making profitable, privacy-focused products. I'm willing to pay for privacy-friendly services (and I do pay for email), and that could go toward funding browser development.
But no, they'll flirt with it with whitelabel VPN and whatnot, but they won't commit.
Now, if Google loses, Firefox will likely head of enshitification.
The whole thing is FOSS. if the company goes over the community can still maintain it if they wish to
No, keeping up with new web standards, security, etc. is a full time job. It's not something volunteers can keep up with. At that point, it may be better to just give up and build on top of Chromium.
In addition, without enough market share, websites will not test, let alone optimize for your browser. This is already causing issues for Firefox. Smaller browser engines stand no chance.
And if Firefox changes to a chromium browser, I'm out. I'm here to support independent browser engines, beyond that, I don't care much about Mozilla.
Good luck. If Firefox changes to Blink, that’s it. Gecko won’t last long without the Mozilla Foundation footing the development bill. You get WebKit and Blink, nothing else.
Yup. I'd probably end up with Brave because they have a functional ad blocker.
They can. But maintaining a modern browser engine is a MAJOR piece of work especially when there’s already another open source browser (Chromium) that is sucking in maintainers.
Firefox is dying. I’ve been a loyal user since Phoenix days but there is just no road forward. Many websites now don’t test for it. It’s in a slow death spiral. Such a shame.
Ecosia deserves all the support they can get!
Cool stuff, now of Firefox didn't switch back to Google every major update or so, that would be great... because I actually do have Ecosia selected and need to switch back to it every once in a while because hey why not
I've never had my search engine change from an update, and I use it on Linux, Android, and macOS. I set mine to DDG years ago and it has never changed.
I suspect that is something specific to Ecosia, that they changed parameters from time to time which changes the entry, making your selected one no longer available, and then this happens: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-engine-removal
The fact that they announce Ecosia now after it's been available for a bit, makes me think this is what happened. I'll see
You might want to check if Windows is the culprit.
Using Linux here
Dunno then my friend. It's not been an issue for me on either OS. But I believe you of course. Good luck figuring it out
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