Google undoubtedly dominates the desktop browser market, while Microsoft Edge has shown notable growth in recent times. However, Firefox continues to face challenges in attracting new users.
In an effort to turn the tide, Mozilla is testing a fresh approach that could persuade more people to switch their default browser on Windows during the installation of the browser.
BleepingComputer installed the Firefox beta release, and we noticed a new setup screen that helps you customize your browser right after installing it. It highlights that Firefox is backed by a non-profit and works to protect your privacy by stopping companies from secretly tracking you online.
Source: BleepingComputer
The screen gives you three options: pinning Firefox to your taskbar, setting it as your default browser, and importing data from another browser.
All of these options were enabled by default, an aggressive approach by Mozilla, who has previously criticized Microsoft for utilizing preselected options.
This change is tied to another experiment aiming to streamline the onboarding process for users downloading Firefox through special marketing campaigns.
If a user chooses to install Firefox from a campaign that advertises it as the "default browser," Firefox will now handle the setup process automatically, removing the need for manual configuration.
The feature works by embedding a unique identifier, called an attribution campaign ID, into the lightweight "stub installer" that you download from Mozilla’s website.
When users run Firefox for the first time, the browser detects this identifier.
If the identifier matches the campaign to "set Firefox as the default browser," Firefox initiates a background task to set itself as the default on the user’s system.
As reported by WindowsReport, the feature is currently being tested in Firefox’s Nightly and Beta releases to iron out any issues before it becomes widely available in Firefox 135.
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Comments
rhasce - 1 year ago
Not as intrusive as Chrome or Edge, now they not just want you too, they make you and do it in a sneaky way as well, trick you, Mozilla is the most respectful when it comes to this. You sound like a MS fanboy :)
joshwenke - 1 year ago
Yikes, Mozilla declares they're becoming an advertising company and now following in the footsteps of other ad companies. Doesn't help that they get nearly 90% of their revenue from Google.
Firefox is the least secure of the mainstream browsers. It has a much weaker sandbox and dramatically weaker exploit protections. Smaller market share and lack of monitoring for exploits means fewer exploits are caught in the wild, which doesn't mean it's safer or more secure.
PrivacyTests.org lays it all out.
You're better off using Brave, or Librewolf if you must use a Firefox fork.
AdvancedSetup - 1 year ago
"You're better off using Brave, or Librewolf if you must use a Firefox fork."
There are exploits and constant abuse for all browsers today. Relying on a drastically smaller group of people in a fork to keep the browser safe is not the best choice. Perhaps Brave may have enough people taking care of security but many do not.
As far as privacy I'd say the Mullvad fork of Firefox has better privacy overall than all the others but I doubt their team is adequate to keep up with all the security flaws as well.
In my opinion unless stopped within the next five years there will only be the Chromium browser period. Firefox has already been so assimilated by Google Chrome it gets harder and harder to separate them from each other.
Then relying on 3rd party forks for security is not wise. They'll probably continue to have those that choose to use them but at some point Chromium will own well over 95% of the browser market. There could be someone or something that comes along to change that but I'm not sure what it is at this point.