Firefox 156 shows ads in the address bar (dubbed "Firefox Suggest")

Firefox 156 shows ads in the address bar (dubbed "Firefox Suggest")(heise.de)

54 points by dark-star 4 days ago | 23 comments

I believe this has been around for a while; it's probably just been rolled out to more regions (Germany, France, and Italy, according to the article).

It's annoying, but thankfully it's a single checkbox in the settings to disable it (uncheck "Suggestions from sponsors").

pluc 4 days ago | |

> Note: Certain parts of Firefox Suggest are currently available only in some regions.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-suggest

OkCompute64 4 days ago |

I set the following in my user.js to disable this kind of thing. It keeps my default search engine suggestions but disables all the junk. Strictly speaking I think the last line is technically redundant as quicksuggest.all=false should disable .sponsored as well but no harm in being explicit about it.

  user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.engines", false);
  user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.openpage", false);
  user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.topsites", false);
  user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quickactions", false);
  user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.recentsearches", false);
  user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.all", false);
  user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.sponsored", false);

akimbostrawman 4 days ago | |

im glad every update i don't have to nanny my "private" browser with obscure config changes to sell me out by using a actual private browser such as librewolf and mullvad browser

sigmonsays 4 days ago | |

where do you put this user_pref content?

nxtbl 4 days ago | | |

Edit within the browser via about:config or add them in the user.js file, easier to make it permanent and portable

grimgrin 4 days ago | | |

as the other comment said, you can put in user.js but more specifically, that goes in the root of wherever your profile is. for me, that is:

    /home/<user>/.mozilla/firefox/<name>/user.js

this file doesn't exist by default, there's caveats with how it is overwritten, etc. i don't know much

optimisticedits 4 days ago | |

Sheesh. I'm surprised nobody announced how difficult it is to toggle some checkboxes for disabling the completely unintrusive crypto features of Brave in this thread.

akimbostrawman 4 days ago | | |

i was gonna make a joke that its because brave devs are "literally hitler" for HN but you getting downvoted for this just makes my point for me

zamadatix 4 days ago |

The title has been editorialized & elides the change is regional rollout rather than introduction of the functionality itself (been discussed for years at this point).

It's probably easier to search for lists of things to disable in Firefox than go one per post anyways. One of the nice things about Firefox (other than the relative amount of these things) is the knobs to remove them usually exist somewhere for you to pull.

yencabulator 3 days ago |

https://web.archive.org/web/20260915141712/https://www.heise...

the whole relevant section is

> In Germany, France, and Italy, Firefox 156 displays localized Wikipedia suggestions and occasional sponsored results in the address bar. The feature is part of Firefox Suggest and supplements typed entries with relevant suggestions. According to Mozilla, these suggestions can be disabled in the Firefox Suggest settings.

froh42 4 days ago |

If I hadn't rage-sponsored servo over the shitty Mozilla handling of money, I'd rage-sponsor servo now.

I use Firefox because I believe in an alternative to Chrome, but they make it fucking hard to love Firefox.

VCFundedGenYer 4 days ago |

Reminder that Waterfox removes all of this nonsense.

And if you want an even more security hardened fork, LibreWolf.

Vanilla Firefox lost the plot a long time ago.

monegator 4 days ago |

these fucking cookie consent in german. These bastards (cookie company) do it on purpose

pluc 4 days ago | |

https://github.com/cavi-au/Consent-O-Matic

monegator 3 days ago | | |

had it installed for years. never worked on this particular cookie form. no matter how many times i report it for not working

moribvndvs 4 days ago | |

The consent dialog is one of the most unhinged examples I’ve seen. No “reject all”, I clicked reject on each of the visible sections which kept the save selected button grayed out. To fix that you have to click all providers and reject each one, and there are nearly 200.

monegator 3 days ago | | |

I know. In this case i usually set firefox in reader mode, and if the page doesn't load, nothing of value was lost. (Clickbait anyway. The option had been there almost as long as sponsored links in home tiles)

vlod 4 days ago | |

I don't see it. May I be the first to tempt you of the delights of firefox and ublock-origin. :)

akimbostrawman 4 days ago |

and yet many on HN will keep insisting firefox does not have ads or sell user data despite literally defaulting to google for money which directly means selling user search data to them and showing ads.

the actual "fix" is not changing config settings regularly broken/changed but with a proper fork actually delivering what firefox keeps promising such as librewolf and mullvad browser.

0x073 3 days ago | |

The actual fix would be a paid browser, but almost no one will pay for a browser subscription.

akimbostrawman 1 day ago | | |

Somehow brave is doing exact that and is doing more than fine. I guess not using all the donation and advertising money for over priced and underperforming board member that waste even more money on tech unrelated political activism does help.

poulpy123 4 days ago |

WTF

user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.engines", false); user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.openpage", false); user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.topsites", false); user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quickactions", false); user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.recentsearches", false); user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.all", false); user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.sponsored", false);