Mozilla partners with Ecosia for a better web

“OMG this is crazy but in light of the looming Google antitrust stuff did y’all realize there are other browsers out there??”

realize there are other browsers out there?
You meant search engines?
- Ya there’s only 2 types of browsers :( chromium and Firefox based. There’s a total monopoly on that

Of all the things I care about in a search engine, “social impact” has got to be near the bottom.

That they’re touting this as the selling point tells me they’re trying to distract from the real motive.

This selling point is not important to you because you're not part of Mozilla's target market. Mozilla already has the 2% of the internet that hangs out on Lemmy. They're pursuing some of the remaining 98%.
[citation needed]
- LOL cite your opinion buddy.

Please tell me I overlooked in the press release the link to what they are talking about.

It sounds like Firefox will have a new default search engine soon
- I think that's very unlikely; this PR was delivered pretty much word-for-word with a different partner earlier this year: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox-partners-with-qwant/
  imo this is just your standard PR announcement of a partnership between two known entities which will get people talking before they forget about it
- google aint giving mozilla money anymore?

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?

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
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.
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?
Maybe they'll spend it all on Tshirts, worked for Kagi.
- I like my Kagi t-shirt, except the sizes are deceptive. I'm a chubby fuck but I fit comfortably in a US XL tee. I ordered an XL for Kagi. This shit is like a size smaller; "form fitting" if you will. I wasn't planning on showcasing my moobs but I guess we are doing that now.
  I like the search engine though. Been using it for a bit over a year. No real complaints; maybe a bit expensive, I guess.

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?

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?

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.
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.

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".

After abandoning the fediverse.

Lots of people have been saying they should focus more on developing Firefox rather than doing other things like partnering with Mullvad or whatever. There are already quite a few other fediverse instances.

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

Here's a suggestion that would show they care about their users and making the web a better place:

Give users the option to download firefox with adblockers pre-installed. Literally put them right next to the "normal" browser download and see which gets more hits.

because adblockers often lead to websites not working which would lead to non techie people complaining about firefox.
- Not really.
  Replace "often" with "exceedingly rarely" and you'd be more accurate, but then you can just be describing websites that don't work properly in general.

Ecosia deserves all the support they can get!