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What's New with Firefox 142

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177 points keepamovin | 3 comments | 02 Sep 25 10:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.019s | source
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everdrive ◴[02 Sep 25 13:25 UTC] No.45102820[source]▶
I'm genuinely perplexed why people find link previews useful. The page image is too small to really see, and it's not as if rapidly opening and closing a tab actually takes effort. It may be faster than the long click depending how comfortable you are with keyboard controls.

I have other questions as well -- does the link preview ignore your plugins? So if you loaded the web page, would uBlock Origin prevent tracking which is _not_ prevented when loading the preview? If you have a phishing test url with a unique identifier, do you flunk the test even if you don't click through?

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1. zerkten ◴[02 Sep 25 13:50 UTC] No.45103111[source]▶
>> it's not as if rapidly opening and closing a tab actually takes effort. It may be faster than the long click depending how comfortable you are with keyboard controls.

For normal people, i.e. those who aren't techies, you have your answer right there on why this may be useful. We are very efficient with our browser usage. Normal people struggle with this task because they get lost in the steps. Even if they can do the steps at a slow pace, it doesn't stick because it's too slow. The leap to using keyboard shortcuts just won't happen for the majority of people.

I think your points on how this is implemented are fairer. That said, that said it seems like the best approach is to follow the simplest and most efficient approach, which is to not load extensions, or use what is loaded.

The success of features like this is known with technical users like us. We don't like them because we have a workflow that avoids the issue like the phishing one you describe. It's unclear whether this helps users and is likely somewhat experimental. I think it's a much better place to be doing work that other areas where they have invested even if it has many issues.

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2. ffsm8 ◴[02 Sep 25 14:54 UTC] No.45103908[source]▶
Eh, isn't it even quicker without keyboard? Third button opens in New tab, third button again closes the tab.

But you're point is correct that the majority of people do indeed not use any device quickly. No matter wherever it's a phone or desktop browser.

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3. wtallis ◴[02 Sep 25 16:29 UTC] No.45105308[source]▶
Out of the box, a minority of computers have a third button to click: it's pretty much just desktop mice not from Apple. Laptops and Apple mice require a power user to jump through hoops to have a way to express a middle click that's easier than reaching for the control key.