this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
109 points (100.0% liked)

technology

23303 readers
410 users here now

On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.

Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020

Rules:

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Jadzia_Dax@hexbear.net
context@hexbear.net
EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net
SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net
gaycomputeruser@hexbear.net
ZoomeristLeninist@hexbear.net
109
I hate enshittification so much. (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 month ago by edge@hexbear.net to c/technology@hexbear.net
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I wanted to block Google's shitty AI results. Ok it looks like I can add &udm=14 to the url to do that.

Let me just add a custom search engine in Firefox... oh wait apparently you can't add custom search engines anymore. You have to install an extension for that.

Ok I found an extension that does it but it makes Firefox say "search with [extension name]" instead of "search with Google" and the icon is different which is annoying.

Should be an easy fix, just download the extension's source and modify the manifest.json to name it "Google" and change the icon to Google's.

Alright now let's install it and... "This add-on could not be installed because it has not been verified." Wtf I have to sign my own add-ons just to use locally?

Fine whatever download the shitty npm program to sign the add-on (it downloaded 400 dependencies btw). Oh wait I need an API key to sign the add-on to use it locally. I'm not getting a fucking API key to run local code.

Oh good there's actually an about:config setting to disable add-on signing... and it doesn't work anymore.

screm-a AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Is there a good Firefox fork that undoes this bullshit but otherwise keeps up with the main codebase and isn't a pain to switch to?

all 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] neo@hexbear.net 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't know why Firefox makes you do it this way but you do not need an extension. For example, go to Yandex.com then click on the address/search bar. On the bottom of the pop up you will be able to add Yandex as a search provider.

It's dumb. But it doesn't need any extensions or config changes.

[–] edge@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As far as I can tell that doesn't let you make it the default, just add it as a keyword.

[–] neo@hexbear.net 24 points 1 month ago

part 2 of the dumbness. then you go into firefox settings under the search section and rearrange the search providers. the top one is default, and the rest appear in order.

[–] Zvyozdochka@hexbear.net 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Change browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh to true then go to Settings -> Search -> Search Shortcuts (at the bottom) -> Add. No extension needed. :)

[–] edge@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cool that worked. I had to name it with Cyrillic о though since it couldn't be named "Google" even after I deleted the default Google.

And it looks like there's no way to edit it should I ever need to change it. I'd have to delete and recreate. wtf

[–] Zvyozdochka@hexbear.net 21 points 1 month ago

Honestly, I'd just take this as a chance to move away from Google. Find some public SearxNG instance and use that instead, much more private, better search results since it uses multiple search engines under the hood, and you get to keep results from Google if you want.

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Firefox-dev lets you run custom extensions. They just updated the GUI tho. It's all customizable now.

[–] vegeta1@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

These results are bad

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago

Wow, I hadn't realized it's gotten so bad. I use duckduckgo and just tried it. I also got some of these. A little fewer though.

[–] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i haven't seen the AI stuff at all, idk if it's just not a thing in my region or maybe ublock just blocks it by default?

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago

I've seen it once. It may be a random test selection or limited to queries it arbitrarily decides that it has a good (always 100% wrong) answer for.

[–] Aradina@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

Doesn't need an extension. Just add it and then put it at the top of the list.

[–] Midnight_Pearl@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago

waterfox (current, not classic) is pretty good for running custom unsigned addons, and said addons don't have to be restricted by the webextensions API either if you really wanna go ham on customizing

[–] What_Religion_R_They@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

Can't you just block the AI bit with uBlock?

[–] supafuzz@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

it's amazing how much worse the experience of using a phone or computer is than just 5 years ago (when it was already pretty bad compared to 5 years before)

we're on an exponential doom curve, the only winning move is to pitch your gizmos into the sea

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

No, but I'm not sure, it would help. I'd really like to dns block made-for-advertising sites. They have exploded because of AI. One would need to create an index of them like there already are for ads, pornography and gambling. I'm talking about the blogs full of long AI articles and pictures on every conceivable obscure topic.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

They all end with "In conclusion..."