However, version 60 added pocket, along with other "features" such as the optional Firefox experiments (where, if you opt in, they track your user behavior to improve the browser).
Guess I'll be looking for a new browser again.
Firefox is about letting you control your browser experience, that's why the ability to easily remove options you might not like will always exist. If/when this ever changes, that would be a significant departure from their Mission statement.
The true history of Pocket suggests otherwise -- in 2015 Mozilla integrated Pocket, which was at that time a private company separate from Mozilla, into Firefox.
Further, when Mozilla first integrated it into Firefox, there was no way to remove it, only hide the icon:
> "This page http://help.getpocket.com/customer/portal/articles/1999137-h.... purports to tell you how to disable Pocket for Firefox, yet all it does is remove the button from the toolbar. Searching "pocket" in about:config reveals numerous preferences that can be edited, including browser.pocket.enabled which remains set to true after following Pocket's instructions."
Only after severe backlash [0] did Mozilla decide the best way to handle it was to purchase Pocket.
> The true history of Pocket suggests otherwise -- in 2015 Mozilla integrated Pocket, which was at that time a private company separate from Mozilla, into Firefox.
What in this true history you cite indicates otherwise?
Please elaborate on how some config settings are altering your browser experience.
I fear you're vastly overestimating the effects a few people had on Mozilla's decision to experiment with, then buy a company that could help them potentially gain some actual influence over content-makers and the ad industry, and hopefully reduce their utter reliance on Google's money.
At best, the only thing the criticism over Pocket accomplished was to hasten Mozilla's pre-existing desire to develop these kinds of features as (what became) Test Pilot extensions.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15421708
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15931730
Thanks, I never noticed the '...' menu. Now my new tabs are refreshingly empty. I just don't understand why a '...' was even necessary, all of the options would still have fit nicely when expanded to a horizontal bar. I blame whitespace-driven design.
And it's especially also a different source of income than search engines. They try to differentiate here, in case for example Google's monopoly becomes even more extreme and they push the price down.
And exactly in this vein, a big motivation for Pocket is competing with search engines in general. It tries to be another channel through which users can discover new content, so that Google can't determine everything you believe in without any hindrance.