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by jeppester 117 days ago
> I wonder what sort of user testing made them decide that what Firefox users really need is a chat bot in the site bar. Isn't a chat bot in a tab good enough?

If it wasn't because I find myself using the AI-sidebar all the time I would probably have shared your opinion.

I guess it's just quite convenient to have it separated from the "regular" tabs and their history.
2 comments
UI_at_80x24 117 days ago
Could you please describe your use-case? How do you use it? How do you make use of it?

I use Claude code, so I understand that paradigm; I don't grok this though. Is it any different then going to a web page i.e. gemini.google.com and typing your query there?

Could this side bar have been a "search bar" at the top? Now that I say it out lou, adding them to the 'search providers' isn't a bad idea.

Generally speaking I am against this being shoved at us, but I find it as a useful tool in a limited number of areas.

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jeppester 116 days ago
I always have my browser open, so having it just one click away and not interrupting with whatever else the browser is showing feels convenient.

I'm using linux, so there are no official desktop apps I could use instead. Had there been, perhaps I'd have had a different opinion about the AI sidebar.

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Sabinus 116 days ago
I use it to communicate with AI about content I'm reading without having to navigate away from the content and breaking flow. On a 4k screen there's plenty of horizontal space to have the AI sidebar and display a web page.
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mort96 117 days ago
Then you can install an AI extension.
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jeppester 117 days ago
You were saying:

> I wonder what sort of user testing made them decide that what Firefox users really need is a chat bot in the site bar

I answered:

> If it wasn't because I find myself using the AI-sidebar all the time I would probably have shared your opinion.

Perhaps they did actually test it. Perhaps the majority is like me and find it useful.

> Then you can install an AI extension.

As mentioned I didn't know that I'd like this feature. I wouldn't have reached for such an extension.

It's obvious that you don't want this functionality - which you can now easily disable. What if the majority of the users actually like this? Or the majority either like it or are not the slightest bothered by it? Is it not a good addition overall then?

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