topic Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use? in Discussions

Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

Alex — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 08:10:43 GMT

You removed the search from Yandex, but on what basis do you DECIDE FOR ME what to use for me? I am doing search engine optimization, I need to have ALL search engines in my browser, but for some reason you decided for me to remove the search engine I need for work.Why do you consider it possible to make decisions for users and touch information on their devices? Has your ethics been blocked by Putin or what?

How can I trust your products now? How can I restore Yandex????

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

JohnR — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 10:43:52 GMT

I don't understand why you have removed the Russian search engines. This is a pointless attempt at censorship of the warped Russian point of view. Although I detest the actions of President Putin in his desire to wreck Ukraine, I still want to have simple access to Russian media. In many cases, this media is self-defeating and should be read by more people rather than less.

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

jscher2000 — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 17:43:09 GMT

@Alex wrote:
How can I restore Yandex????

This method works on many search engine sites:

(A) Open the site's home page
(B) Right-click the URL in the Address bar
(C) Find and click an item at the bottom of the menu for Add "Yandex" (or Add "Яндекс" for .ru)

More about how sites enable OpenSearch autodiscovery:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/OpenSearch#autodiscovery_of_search_plugins

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

MintMain21 — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:30:56 GMT

I don't even think the engine was dropped due to "censorship". I think it was dropped due to funding (IE: Yandex no longer wanted to pay Firefox royalties to be a default search engine).

The fact ya'll are conflating that with Censorship implies that you understand very little about the Internet Browser you believe "betrayed their own values".

I repeat, if you want to add Yandex (and you can do this with ANY search engine).....

1. Go to yandex.com.
2. Right Click on the address bar and select "Add Yandex".
3. Go into your browser settings, and change the default search engine to Yandex.

Ta-da!!!!

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

Alex — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 09:10:28 GMT

I can understand when it is removed for new browser installations. But when I already have this search extension in my browser, I am outraged that they just took it and removed it from me. What else can they remove just because they feel like it?...

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

MintMain21 — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 17:52:21 GMT

It's probably because the way default search engines are programed doesn't allow them to persist if the defaults change.

It's unfortunate, but as I've said before (and as you know by now judging by how this is considered solved), you can add it back.

Firefox probably could fix this in the future. In theory.

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

jscher2000 — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 18:07:28 GMT

Built-in search engine extensions are part of the program files that get changed out on every update; they are not installed to the extensions folder in the user's profile. So when a built-in search engine extension is removed, like Yahoo! was a few years ago, users who liked it need to install it from another source.

What other built-in features could be removed? This Discussion board is full of complaints about things that were removed or changed.

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

steel835 — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 21:16:06 GMT

I think it was dropped due to funding (IE: Yandex no longer wanted to pay Firefox royalties to be a default search engine)

Could be. But whether it is true or not, the release note didn't provide any information as to why they were removed. Not very transparent, really. And it is happening during an informational war, where search engines are openly downranking the whole segments just because there is another point of view, so it's understandable why people think it is censoring.

Because it is:

...we are suspending the use of Yandex Search in Firefox due to credible reports of search results displaying a prevalence of state sponsored content, which is contrary to the principles of Mozilla

Pretty selective adherence to the principles imo.

"You could've easily searched for the ~~solution~~ news article there and saved us all a bunch of time" (the irony, some things aren't easily searched now, so much for open and free internet)

Re: Why do you decide for the user which search to use?

BeeBee — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 09:27:41 GMT

Firefox claim on internet safety is a far out deceptive as Google is reset as a standard search engine with every upgrade performed. Google is definitively the worst of its kind on privacy issues no matter it does a good job searching til net. It's annoying having to alter my default search engine in Firefox every second week.

Google is Skynet