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Never thought about this, but it makes sense they don't want a better local search, just for users to rely more on their product. It's messed up - so much time and human potential wasted on poor search and ads.

by skycrafter06 hours ago|

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> Adopted Google Chrome's "Omnibar" instead of a separate address bar and search bar.

On the other hand, the additional tools in the Omnibar (calculator is the example most should be familiar with) makes the bar incredibly useful for random daily tasks. Also, it seems that there is an "omnibox" API that extensions can use, which allows them to add their own tools to the omnibar/omnibox. Would be interesting as a form of "assistant" in a way.

by windowliker6 hours ago|

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>Both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge actually implement this. [...] both will upload your browser history to the cloud.

I'm fairly certain I've caught Firefox doing something similar (regularly sending multiple tens of MB to Google servers in the background.)

by ComputerGuru5 hours ago|

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So fwiw, browsing history shouldn’t be anywhere near that big making it unlikely there what it was. It compresses well, if they were to do it I’m sure they’d do it at regular intervals instead of a years’ worth at a time, etc.

And, of course, Firefox is open source and this wouldn’t be kept a secret.

by windowliker3 hours ago|

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In which case I'd love to know what it was doing sending that much data to Google IPs when I don't use Google services...

I've read all the Mozilla help pages about what automatic connections Firefox makes and it wasn't accounted for there (unless possibly something to do with SafeBrowsing.)

by olejorgenb6 hours ago|

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> Both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge actually implement this. Behind the scenes, both will upload your browser history to the cloud. You can see it in network packet captures. It's implemented in the browser for the vendor, but not for the user.

Citation needed... (I'm talking about the page *content*, not the metadata like url and title)

by nubg7 hours ago|

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> both will upload your browser history to the cloud

I wonder if the EU could fine them a couple weeks of revenue for this. Seems illegal.

by olejorgenb6 hours ago|

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I'm 80%+ sure the claim is BS

by evanjrowley5 hours ago|

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It's not BS for the people who don't understand the dark patters that guide users to enabling all of this stuff. That's everyone with a Windows PC who didn't bypass the Microsoft account requirement and went with all of the defaults in Microsoft Edge. Everyone using Chrome Enterprise/Education whose Google Workspace admins don't want to get into trouble for not backing up people's stuff (i.e., sharing it all with Google). Same goes for company Windows PCs set up with Microsoft Entra ID. It's everyone with an Android device and a Google account who wants their settings backed up or transfers to a new Android device. It's in the fine print and legalese for all of these products and services.