New Firefox update released, blocks autoplaying audio, prevents page-jumping from late ad loading

[kuhnertdm]

Source: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/03/19/todays-firefox-aims-to-reduce-your-online-annoyances/

Release notes: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/66.0/releasenotes/

 

Today, Mozilla released a new major version of Firefox that comes with two new features to mitigate online annoyances commonly caused by ads.

 

With version 66, Firefox now automatically blocks autoplaying audio on the web. This option is able to be disabled, and also allows for the use of a whitelist, so users can let some domains autoplay audio while blocking it from everywhere else. The second new feature is "scroll anchoring", which stops the page from jumping up or down when ads or other page contents load, pushing the main content away from where the user is looking. The new feature automatically changes the scroll position to keep the content where it is on screen.

 

The following smaller improvements were also added to the new version:

 

• Added a search bar to the tab overflow menu, so users can search for tabs when they have obscene numbers of them open
• Added a search bar to the default private browsing tab
• Improved performance of reading extension settings
• Redesigned keyboard shortcuts options
• Redesigned certificate error pages, giving more layman-understandable descriptions of why the error is happening and why a site is deemed unsafe
• Increases default number of content loading processes from 4 to 8, improving performance
• Added Windows Hello support on Win10 for face/fingerprint/etc authentication on websites
• Added touchbar support on macOS
• Redesigned Pocket layout on the new tab page
• Various bug/security fixes

[Drak3]

So long as it doesn't betray the Jedi, we're good.

[MoonSpot]

[TempestCatto]

The lads at Mozilla looking out for us. This is a huge help on the web, especially when listing to music and all the sudden you're interrupted by (turn volume down)

Spoiler

 

I really hate when the page jumps after content has loaded. Does it specify if it applies to non ad related content such as images or videos embedded in the text of a page? Since most of us use adblock anyway, that would be more the issue here.

EDIT: I should learn to read harder .-. But still, I am super happy this finally is a thing. Shit like that legit caused me to just close a webpage because it pissed me off so much.

[williamcll]

What websites right now uses facial login?

 

I wish they update firefox for Linux ARM, really don't want to use chrome on the raspberry pi

[Tataffe]

14 hours ago, kuhnertdm said:

The second new feature is "scroll anchoring", which stops the page from jumping up or down when ads or other page contents load, pushing the main content away from where the user is looking. The new feature automatically changes the scroll position to keep the content where it is on screen.

 

This is a godsend.

[RejZoR]

7 hours ago, williamcll said:

What websites right now uses facial login?

 

I wish they update firefox for Linux ARM, really don't want to use chrome on the raspberry pi

Technically, it can be done through Microsoft Hello and password manager like Bitwarden. Haven't tried it myself yet. You still need password behind, but it's managed by a password manager. So, you show your face/fingerprint, password manager authenticates it and uses attached passwords to login to certain webpage.

[colonel_mortis]

15 hours ago, kuhnertdm said:

Added a search bar to the tab overflow menu, so users can search for tabs when they have obscene numbers of them open

8 hours ago, williamcll said:

I wish they update firefox for Linux ARM, really don't want to use chrome on the raspberry pi

On debian, it's built for ARM64 https://packages.debian.org/stretch/firefox-esr. Same for Fedora (latest and ESR).

[jasonvp]

Now if someone could make a functional Media Keys extension for it, I'd be all set and move from Chrome.

[DragonTamer1]

Mine updated last night and annoyingly broke youtube. I was force signed out on all my tabs and kept getting an error when trying to sign back in. Ended up clearing all my cookies and history to fix the issue.

[aezakmi]

They should include a free VPN at least on incognito, like Opera does

 

useful for watching youtube vids

[Techstorm970]

20 hours ago, kuhnertdm said:

With version 66, Firefox now automatically blocks autoplaying audio on the web . . . The second new feature is "scroll anchoring", which stops the page from jumping up or down when ads or other page contents load, pushing the main content away from where the user is looking. The new feature automatically changes the scroll position to keep the content where it is on screen.

. . .

• Increases default number of content loading processes from 4 to 8, improving performance

In my book, Mozilla Firefox just one-punch-KO'd Google Chrome with these new features.

 

Quick question:  Will the increased number of content loading processes eat more battery on my laptop?  I switched from Chrome to Firefox because Firefox isn't as resource-heavy which helps my battery life.  (Didn't realize the other Chrome-beating perks of Firefox until I had used it for a few days.)

[poochyena]

20 hours ago, kuhnertdm said:

"scroll anchoring"

I have had a small issue with this so far. When opening and closing images on 4chan, it will sometimes cause the page to jump around. Basically doing the opposite of what the update intended.
When closing an image, the screen scrolls up instead of down, which is what i'm use to and is more convenient when scrolling down a thread.

 

[ZacoAttaco]

Been swapping between Firefox and Chrome for sometime. Updates like this and Mozilla's focus on customer privacy makes me want to stick with Firefox and I think I will for sometime now.

[williamcll]

16 hours ago, colonel_mortis said:

On debian, it's built for ARM64 https://packages.debian.org/stretch/firefox-esr. Same for Fedora (latest and ESR).

No, ESR is buggy on the pi, I've tried it on lubuntu and mint.

[Hellion]

Auto play of any kind could already be disabled under the hood on previous versions of firefox but I guess it;s nice that it's now disabled by default.

 

And pocket is about as useful as a fart in a windstorm and should just die already.

 

At least Mozilla is focusing on increasing performance rather then adding more tracking like other more popular browsers...