Mozilla-Microsoft spat latest: Firefox yanks Cortana away from Bing

By winrez
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winrez

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After installing Firefox 40, Mozilla seems to be rerouting Cortana to Firefox's default search.

Mozilla has upped the stakes in its squabble with Microsoft over user choice, having released a new version of Firefox that can sneakily subvert internet searches fed to Windows 10's Cortana personal assistant.

Firefox 40, which shipped on Tuesday, comes with "a fresh new look for Windows 10" that includes "bigger, bolder design elements as well as more space for viewing the Web" – but that's only half the story.

It also ships with a feature that redirects Cortana's web search requests to the search engine you have configured as your Firefox default.

 

Seems like the browser war between Mozilla & Microsoft is getting dirty.

Full Article

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/11/firefox_cortana_search_feature/

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George P Global Moderator

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So, if this is all about user choice then where does Mozilla come off changing what Cortana searches I do?   If I wanted to search with whatever "default" search engine FF uses then i'd search through FF not through Cortana.   Stop screwing around with the OS, just run in your own nice little sandbox and leave the rest of my system alone.

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Max Norris

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Meh as long as they tell you up front, asks you and you can later enable/disable, don't see an issue.  If they do switch you without prompting though.. yea hypocrite much? I wouldn't want Firefox arbitrarily setting my system-wide search to Yahoo without asking first either.

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George P Global Moderator

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I see the browser as it's own thing and Cortana as it's own thing, it's like using a different app, there's no reason for them to go in and mess with Cortana for whatever silly "privacy" or "freedom of choice" BS the OSS group is on this month, give it a rest already.   I see this as being no different from it changing the default search engines on other browsers I have installed, just leave my system alone ok?  Install, do what you're meant to do, and don't touch anything you're not suppose to.  

And do they even ask?  It sounds like they don't ask you and just start doing it if you make FF your default browser to me. 

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Pam14160

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. . .really not sure if Mozilla wants to get into this fight; their dying as it is, and this could be the final nail. . .:woot:

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winrez

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If Mozilla is doing this with Firefox already I'm already dreading how by whom this is gonna be used & 1 or 2 years from now.

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Ci7

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If Mozilla is doing this with Firefox already I'm already dreading how by whom this is gonna be used & 1 or 2 years from now.

ASK

******   hate it :angry:

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Ralph3100

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I see the browser as it's own thing and Cortana as it's own thing, it's like using a different app, there's no reason for them to go in and mess with Cortana for whatever silly "privacy" or "freedom of choice" BS the OSS group is on this month, give it a rest already.   I see this as being no different from it changing the default search engines on other browsers I have installed, just leave my system alone ok?  Install, do what you're meant to do, and don't touch anything you're not suppose to.  

And do they even ask?  It sounds like they don't ask you and just start doing it if you make FF your default browser to me. 

Sounds like Cortana is based off of the default browser behavior. So the process is Cortana is told to search for wombat pictures --> Cortana uses default browser --> default browser uses default search engine --> results are returned.

Sounds like it is functioning just like any default browser behavior should. This is like installing FF, saying "Yeah, I'd like this as my default browser," and then complaining when stuff doesn't automatically open up in Chrome :rofl:

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Steven P. Administrators

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After installing Firefox 40, Mozilla seems to be rerouting Cortana to Firefox's default search.

 

Seems like the browser war between Mozilla & Microsoft is getting dirty.

Full Article

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/11/firefox_cortana_search_feature/

Old news, you suck etc etc /s j/k ;) I get to hear it when I'm a day or two late when writing or if there was a weekend in between :p

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George P Global Moderator

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Sounds like Cortana is based off of the default browser behavior. So the process is Cortana is told to search for wombat pictures --> Cortana uses default browser --> default browser uses default search engine --> results are returned.

Sounds like it is functioning just like any default browser behavior should. This is like installing FF, saying "Yeah, I'd like this as my default browser," and then complaining when stuff doesn't automatically open up in Chrome :rofl:

That's not what it sounds like at all, what it does is cuts in between Cortana and Bing and redirects search requests to whatever the default in FF is set to.

The way I understand it Cortana doesn't work through a browser, with no browser install it should still work fine, whatever the API/hook it uses to send out a search requests is what FF cuts inbetween and pretty much hijacks.

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Eric Veteran

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I knew nothing about this so at least as far as I'm concerned it was done with subterfuge. How does one go about disabling this "feature" or do I dump Firefox again?

EDIT: Found it. about:config -> browser.search.redirectWindowsSearch

Malware behavior FTL

 

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francescob

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When you click the 'Search on web' button on Cortana results it passes the search to the default browser (e.g. Firefox), Firefox will search with its default search engine. I really don't see where the 'hijacking' is supposed to be. Maybe Explorer passes a Bing search URL and Firefox extracts the keywords and uses the default search engine instead? Anyway I'm much happier this way, international Bing versions (e.g. Italy) are full of adware-installing download websites (even for common software like Vlc, Chrome, etc.) so I want the browser to search with the engine I tell it, not being forced to Bing.

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HawkMan

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I knew nothing about this so at least as far as I'm concerned it was done with subterfuge. How does one go about disabling this "feature" or do I dump Firefox again?

EDIT: Found it. about:config -> browser.search.redirectWindowsSearch

Malware behavior FTL

 

This is par for the roucse for them, ever since back when they automatically set themselves as default browser for all users on install without asking at all. then was caught out when Vista changed user behaviour from users not all having admin rights. Then they all went on a rant about how MS restricted them and gave them unecessary UAC popups durign install...

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Eric Veteran

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This is par for the roucse for them, ever since back when they automatically set themselves as default browser for all users on install without asking at all. then was caught out when Vista changed user behaviour from users not all having admin rights. Then they all went on a rant about how MS restricted them and gave them unecessary UAC popups durign install...

So the behavior change they're complaining about for setting the default browser was because of them. Makes sense. :p

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Hey_Wtf

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Sorry FF I have been with you a long time, I really do like edge as it is kind of sexy, I still will use FF but not as defualt

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oldtimefighter

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I know it's popular to dump on Mozilla these days but maybe people should have read the actual article (the OP summary sucked) before commenting. I have no problem with what Mozilla did as it was the right thing to do... I have Firefox as my default browser and Google as my default search for a reason. If I were to use Cortana to do a web search, I won't want it to use Bing.

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francescob

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I know it's popular to dump on Mozilla these days but maybe people should have read the actual article (the OP summary sucked) before commenting. I have no problem with what Mozilla did as it was the right thing to do... I have Firefox as my default browser and Google as my default search for a reason. If I were to use Cortana to do a web search, I won't want it to use Bing.

And it likely doesn't work that way. If there's a about:config setting it's likely something the browser does itself, and it likely applies only to when the browser is opened by the 'Search on the web' button on Cortana/Explorer searches. I think it's extremely unlikely that the results shown in the start menu are altered by some magical 'hijacking' done by Firefox. And I think that's how the 'Search on web' feature should have been from the start, searching through the engine set in the browser, not exclusively through Bing.

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Mockingbird

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I know it's popular to dump on Mozilla these days but maybe people should have read the actual article (the OP summary sucked) before commenting. I have no problem with what Mozilla did as it was the right thing to do... I have Firefox as my default browser and Google as my default search for a reason. If I were to use Cortana to do a web search, I won't want it to use Bing.

Cortana is the front end for Bing.

What you are saying would be like: "I want to use Google Now, but with Bing."

 

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Mockingbird

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Meh as long as they tell you up front, asks you and you can later enable/disable, don't see an issue.  If they do switch you without prompting though.. yea hypocrite much? I wouldn't want Firefox arbitrarily setting my system-wide search to Yahoo without asking first either.

It doesn't tell you.

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oldtimefighter

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Cortana is the front end for Bing.

What you are saying would be like: "I want to use Google Now, but with Bing."

 

That's the whole problem... People want to use the search engine of their choice.

You should be able to use any search engine with Google Now.

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adrynalyne

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That's the whole problem... People want to use the search engine of their choice.

You can use any search engine with Google Now.

How do you set up Google Now to use Bing?

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