Is Firefox Firefucked?
I've been using Firefox for over 20 years at this point, but after a stream of cock-ups, I'm thinking about moving on.
Iāve been using Firefox since 2005, so not long after it was first released. I distinctly remember the first time I heard about it - I was on a training course with the Army and the instructor was using Firefox. Netscape was effectively dead, and everyone was using Internet Explorer, but Iāve always been a magpie for the new shiny, so when I saw his browser, I asked him about it.
He told me about it being a fork of Netscape (which was my browser of choice when I first started using the Internet), so I jumped on board and have been happily using Firefox ever since.
Well, I was happy up until the last few years.
Slow decline
I first wrote about my concerns with Firefoxās direction back in 2022 where I talked about the ever increasing CEO salary, despite their ever decreasing market share, their teaming up with Meta on Interoperable Private Attribution (IPA), them shilling cryptocurrencies, and of course the fact theyāre pretty much entirely funded by Google.
Well, over the last 3 years, things havenāt gotten any better and my concerns around the direction Mozilla is taking Firefox have continued to rise.
On top of the few concerns I had back in 2022, thereās a bloody list of additional concerns Iāve picked up since then:
- Privacy Preserving Attribution (PPA) - In Sept 2024, Mozilla rolled out this new PPA feature that was enabled by default and helped advertisers measure performance without traditional tracking.
- Adjusted telemetry in mobile app - Firefox mobile versions shipped with a third-party telemetry SDK (Adjust) that sent usage and install data without prominent user disclosure. After pushback, this was later removed [slow clap].
- Buying an Ad firm - yes, thatās right, dear reader. Everyoneās favourite FOSS web browser decided to buy an ad firm, because, you know, āprivacy-centric advertsā.
- We wonāt sell you data, pinky promiseā¦ - in early 2025 a formal Firefox Terms of Use was introduced, which included a clause granting Mozilla a ānon-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licenceā to use user-entered data. At the same time, they quietly removed explicit ānever sell user dataā language from privacy messaging. Brilliant.
- Whatās the strategy? - as we move to mid-2025 it started to become clear that Firefoxās leadership is out of touch with their users.
- Firefox to evolve into an AI browser - thatās right, according to their new CEO Firefox is set to āevolve into a modern AI browserā.
Mozillaās strategy problem (and why AI is just a symptom)
Mozilla have been getting a lot of shit for the last few days about the whole modern AI browser comment their new CEO made. And rightly so, I think. To me, thereās a clear difference between a browser that has AI capabilities embedded in it, like an AI chat bot, and an AI browser.
The latter arenāt browsers. Theyāre an abstraction layer between you (the user) and the web, summarising, filtering, and rewriting it before you ever see the original, and I have no desire to be a part of that mess.
I donāt mind having a browser with a chat bot embedded in it, as long as it can be switched off. Iād prefer for it to be opt-in, but meh, if itās only a rocker switch in settings, while annoying, I can live with it.
But having this layer of abstraction between me and the web that I know and love? No thank you.
Iām worried about the direction Firefox is headed in. Not just because of their AI strategy; I actually think thatās a symptom, not the root cause.
The root cause, as I see it, is that the leadership team at Mozilla has no fucking clue how to make Firefox a sustainable business, so theyāre just throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks. All while giving their CEO larger and larger salaries.
Because Mozilla has been suckling on Google teat since the very early days, theyāve never had to make a sustainable business. Google dodged the bullet and wasnāt ultimately forced to sell Chrome, but it exposed just how dependent Mozilla still is on Googleās money, and now it looks like theyāre scrambling to invent a strategy of their own.
But itās shit, and as a long-term user of Firefox, it feels almost user-hostile at this point.
So what now?
Honestly, I donāt know. Iāve been dabbling in other browsers, but havenāt found anything I like as much as Firefox.
While I appreciate the sentiment, Iām not looking for browser recommendations. So please donāt contact me with recommendations. By all means contact me with your opinions on all this though.
Vivaldi has too many bells and whistles for my liking, plus thereās a number of UI inconsistencies that annoy me. Brave has all the crypto nonsense embedded, but it can be switched off. Then thereās forks like Librewolf and Waterfox, but theyāre intrinsically tied to upstream Firefox, and they donāt have mobile apps. So Iām not sure theyāre a good option, either.
Firefox wonāt be changing to a modern AI browser any time soon, so thereās no rush for me to jump right now. So Iām planning to continue testing alternatives and just hope that the Mozilla leadership team have a course correction. But if the last few years have taught me anything, itās that a course correction is unlikely to happen.