I really wish Firefox would focus, and I don't mean Firefox Focus. If they focused on making it simple, fast, and reliable, it would have a much better shot at taking market share from Chrome. On top of that, I wish everything on top of a browser was truly optional - that they didn't have reminders of sync spread throughout the app, and that they didn't have a Pocket button in the toolbar unless I logged in with Pocket.
"Find out what hackers already know about you." unnecessarily grinds my gears, as a hacker (programmer) who wants Firefox to succeed.
> If they focused on making it simple, fast, and reliable, it would have a much better shot at taking market share from Chrome.
imho, they've already achieved this and have a great browser that's at least comparably-competent against Chrome.
The battle Mozilla has with Firefox isn't in improving its tech specs, it's in winning over hearts and minds, and that's a complicated, somewhat costly game.
(I say this as a long-term Firefox user who encourages it with all my friends and family)
There are only four major browsers, so it isn't about being a great browser.
Many try to switch and then some scandal happens, or it just seems as cluttered as any other browser, and they give up. I think the people who think Firefox Monitor is a good idea are probably the ones who thought the Mr. Robot promo was a good idea.
A good browser should stay out of the way. Chrome did for a long time. Having a "Save to Pocket" button in my toolbar is intrusive.
Browsers have tons of feature; you don't need to use the ones you don't care for.
It's trivial to remove the pocket button - right-click and select "remove from address bar".
If I might ask - how is a "save to pocket" intrusive? This isn't like any of the billions of social media buttons you'll come across on the web; it's not a tracker or anything (and if you do click it, you're going to need to make an account first; and it's only going to save what you ask it explicitly to save).
It's intrusive because it takes up space on my screen, and because it's completely useless without a Pocket account. Thanks for the tip about removing it from my address bar. Done. It still shows up second in the dot menu, but it's an improvement. I'd rather it were an extension that was installed by default that I could uninstall.
Perhaps this is their focus. Not FF monitor, but privacy. Going up against/with Apple as a privacy-conscious alternative to Chrome etc. From that viewpoint, this is in line with that.
You may find your priorities as to what constitutes a good browser are not universal. Having a content blocker may be more important to many people than a tiny animation most people will barely notice. And... if you're not immediately used to a content blocker it's not a crazy idea to have something that actively draws a tiny bit of attention to the fact that something altered the page you saw, because content blockers do sometimes break pages, and thus users need to be able to find a way to disable it, certainly while the feature is still fairly new.
I think it's fair to say that you're never going to find a set of features and UI that have universal appeal, but if the UI really distracts you even after the first few times (I honestly don't notice it anymore), you could suggest a feature that allows disabling the icon or at least turning off the animation. Sounds like a reasonable request to me at least...
Just because people don't notice the animation doesn't mean they aren't affected by it. The smallest distractions can cause a loss in focus. A web browser is a tool I use for work, and it isn't just about what I want, it's about what I need.
"Find out what hackers already know about you." unnecessarily grinds my gears, as a hacker (programmer) who wants Firefox to succeed.