this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2024
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Illustration of overlapping browser windows with Ecosia's logo, a tree graphic, Firefox's logo, and the text "Together for a better web," alongside a search bar with a green cursor.

Your tech choices matter more than ever. That’s why at Mozilla, we believe in empowering users to make informed decisions that align with their values. In that spirit, we’re excited to announce our partnership with Ecosia, a search engine that prioritizes sustainability, and social impact.

Did you know you could choose the search engine of your choice right from your Firefox URL bar? Whether you prioritize privacy, climate protection, or simply want a search experience tailored to your preferences, we’ve got you covered.

Ecosia goes beyond data protection by addressing environmental concerns. Every search made through the search engine contributes to tree-planting projects worldwide, helping to combat deforestation and regenerate the planet. Ecosia planted over 215 million trees, across the planet biodiversity hotspots, making a tangible difference in the fight against climate change. Just like Mozilla, they are committed to creating a better internet, and world, for everyone.

Together, Mozilla, Firefox and Ecosia are contributing to a web that is more open and inclusive, but above all — one where you can make an informed choice about what tech you use and why. Your tech choices make a difference.

As Firefox and Mozilla continue to champion user empowerment and innovation, we invite you to join us in shaping a web that makes the world better. Together, let’s make a positive impact — one search at a time.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Whether you prioritize privacy*, climate protection, or simply want a search experience tailored to your preferences, we’ve got you covered.

Ecosia goes beyond data protection by addressing environmental concerns...

Together, Mozilla, Firefox and Ecosia are contributing to a web that is more open and inclusive, but above all — one where you can make an informed choice about what tech you use and why. Your tech choices make a difference.

Someone should tell Mozilla about the AI-sized environmental concern in their browser?

* ETA: Ecosia doesn't mention privacy as a feature anywhere on its homepage. (I'm not counting the link to its unimpressive privacy policy.) They call themselves "Google, but greener", and I believe them.

[–] hangonasecond 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In that sentence, they're not referring to Ecosia specifically. Rather, they're implying that you can choose a search engine which aligns to that value. A little weird to include it with no examples, in a post specifically about Ecosia, but I believe that's the intent.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

To wit, the very next sentence sure does seem to say that Ecosia is private.

Ecosia goes beyond data protection by addressing environmental concerns.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Mozilla is on a great tear. Layoffs, pointless rebrand, and now a shit privacy greenwashing search engine partnership. I'm so excited for the future of Firefox.

[–] TheTwelveYearOld 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Which pointless rebrand? I actually like "moz://a".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yea, but they changed to a weird flag thing (?) and a boring font logo:

At least they got this guy:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Oh well, at least the error animals are foxes and not a really weirdly drawn dinosaur

[–] Hiro8811 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Firefox WAS Netscape. Netscape was open sourced, rewritten, and released as Firebird (in reference to a phoenix’s rise from Netscape’s ashes). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mozilla_Application_Suite

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I've been following Ladybird as well, and hope it comes to fruition. Without it we're kinda fucked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think there is suppose to be a an alpha coming this summer.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago

So... what does this partnership actually mean? Will Ecosia be the default search engine once the deal with Google ends?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Ecosia, the "green" search engine with AI chat. Perfect match for Firefox, the browser ever more integrated with AI technology.

I've just given up on Mozilla, using Cromite after a decade of Firefox/Fennec on desktop and mobile had been such an upgrade.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Id still trust/prefer a firefox based browser than something chromium based. Their are a lot of good firefox forks out their and it helps make googles stranglehold of web standards slower. I wish u luck one manifest v2 gets killed (ik its still supported for some forks of chromium but how long is that gonna last?)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What do you mean by trusting? I trust Mozilla to increase the executives wages at the cost of everybody in the organisation. I trust that they'll incorporate more and more features I find unwanted. Privacy-wise I haven't trusted Mozilla since telemetry was opt-out. Security wise I haven't trusted any browser for decades.

Each to their own, I hope you're happy with your setup.

[–] JubilantJaguar 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Unfortunately it's more complex than that, because of the issue of the rendering engine. If Firefox-based browsers disappear, the W3C (which controls web standards, including questions of privacy) will be de-facto controlled by a cabal of corporations. The last voice that cares even slightly about our privacy will be gone.

Opt-out telemetry is bad, overpaid executives is bad. The alternative is worse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

With no intention of stirring the pot, this sounds just like the pre-election arguments in favor of Democrats.

The last voice that cares even slightly about our privacy will be gone.

The emphasis here should be on "even slightly" rather than the dramatic effect of "the last voice".

I mean, if this slice approaches zero, then why it is better to stay with Firefox rather than moving on to more radical solutions?

[–] JubilantJaguar 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Indeed, this is just the pragmatism-vs-idealism debate.

I am a pragmatist, you are an idealist. In my view, by asking for everything you are more likely to get nothing. It's not worth it. It's irresponsible.

this sounds just like the pre-election arguments in favor of Democrats.

Yes, and excellent arguments they were. What a different world we might live in today if just a handful of idealists had decided to suck it up and vote for the Democrat instead of the third-party purist who made their heart sing.

if this slice approaches zero, then why it is better to stay with Firefox rather than moving on to more radical solutions?

Because history shows that "radical solutions" are almost always a mirage. We already have an excellent browser made by a flawed but generally admirable company. If there are problems, the solution is to fix them, not to burn it all down.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Browser choice and presidential vote are so different from one another as to have no value in their comparison.

If you insist on crapping on third-party US American voters, please do it in the politics community in Lemmy.world.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

So u dont like group a whats ur solution? Start supporting group b who are way way way worse? Doesnt seem like the brightest idea to me ngl

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

"Ecosia Chat is powered by OpenAI"

ffs

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Oh great, shitty bing search results with tree NFTs.

[–] pyre 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

oh no, don't take away Google results that fill the entire screen with ads and irrelevant bullshit that relies my stolen data before my actual search terms!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Ecosia being any better in this regard would be news to me. They also rely on ads for funding.

[–] tb_ 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As if Google's results haven't been getting worse

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh they've been getting worse for sure but Bing is still worse. I've used the Bing index via DuckDuckGo for years and it's quite bad.

I now use Kagi which uses both Google and Bing indices (among others) and it's much better and I think most of that is because the Google index is used.

[–] tb_ 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I keep hearing about Kagi, maybe I should try it sometime.

DDG has been quite serviceable to me, however. If I can't find something I can just add a quick !g to my already existing query and look it up on Google instead, which I've found rather convenient.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

If I can't find something I can just add a quick !g to my already existing query and look it up on Google instead, which I've found rather convenient.

Yeah I used to do the same (but with !s).

It's much more convenient to just have good search results to begin with though. Kagi uses the Google index and a few others and you have your own filtering and ranking on top.

In the beginning I felt tempted to do !s a few times too but the results were always worse, so I quickly unlearned doing that.

Executing bangs is also a lot quicker with Kagi; DDG is kind of a slog.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wouldn't this upset Google? (who is the biggest revenue source for Mozilla)

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Mozilla will probably lose (part of or all of, it's not clear yet) Google's funding following their monopoly case, so it's probably best for them to look for other revenue sources.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

They could also stop all this nonsense crap projects they sink money in without any real benefit, and focus mainly on the browser. This would give the browser likely 500% more funding than it has right now.

Have one product, but make it a perfect product.

[–] Carighan 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So after constantly yelling at Mozilla for 10+ years they should do all kinds of things like a VPN, now we no longer find them to experiment to find alternative money sources?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

The money sources are not the issue. The money sinks are. An no-one ever yelled at Mozilla to offer a VPN.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

500% more funding than it has right now.

From whom?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I was waiting for the 2023 forms to drop.

I'm shocked to find out Mitchell Baker has taken a pay cut of ~$600,000, now struggling at a much more relatable $6.2 million instead of $6.9 million

(ETA $600,000 is also her "base" salary, the rest of the $6.2m is her "bonus." She lost one base salary worth of bonuses last year.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

still, 6 mil is ~10% of their revenue. it's egregious, but cutting the ceo's sallary to zero dollars even would solve nothing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

That salary could have been redistributed among the employees Mozilla laid off in the Advocacy division, especially right before they published a report claiming Mozilla needed to be known for advocacy and not Firefox. Or put towards Firefox. Or any combination.

Just removing Mitchell Baker's bonus would already be the majority of that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Their other projects mostly exist, because those make money. The browser hardly does so, outside of the search engine deals.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Oh, that's bad. Ecosia won't even give them a fraction of the revenue google does... I've no idea how they're going to continue going on...

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