Has Google declared war on Mozilla ?
Hi,
I was using Maxthon browser but I switched to Firefox yesterday and the first things I noticed is that Google Captcha, on Firefox is not just difficult, it's brutal. I did a search to see if it was just me and indeed people on different boards were complaining about Captcha being more difficult on Firefox. It's almost impossible to do multiple Captchas, I'm currently running both Firefox and Maxthon to get around this Google policy.
I switched back to Chrome and it was back to normal. Just select three images and you're off. Also, the images loaded with a blink, like they should but on Firefox they take about 1 to 2 seconds to load. And Captcha alsways reloads regardless of how accurate my input was not twice but thrice. I also checked it with the Internet Explorer and it's fine there too.
I tried changing my useragent to chrome but Google beats me to it. Every other site detects my Firefox as Chrome but Google still detecting it as Firefox (in URL's "Client=firefox")
I have no virus, malware. My machine is clean. And I don't use any VPN, proxy, TOR etc.
Now I've got three questions:
1- Is this prejudice based on some real genuine threat that Firefox poses or is it just business as usual ? 2- Is Mozilla aware of this ? What are they doing to resolve it ? 3- What can I do to resolve it ? Is there a solution to this problem ?
P.S Even you don't wanna answer the questions, I would still appreciate your feedback on this issue.
Thank you for reading.
தீர்வு தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டது
Hi the-edmeister
I apologies I couldn't find the solution for the original issue of captcha being more difficult on Firefox. However the awesome support team here helped me with every other thing like cache size.
I think the issue can't be resolved by just changing any settings so the users/contributes can't do much about it. It has to be taken to the development team. Just my opinion.
Kind regards.
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Hi, I can only answer a little as Volunteer Support does not get involved with such matters, but yes, it is biz as usual. From Netscape and IE to Chrome it seems the battle continues : https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3036498/mozilla-accuses-google-of-slowing-down-youtube-on-firefox
Yes Mozilla is aware as per above URL but hard to prove.
Your last part I am sure that there is but am not familiar with what is showing as your Operating System. If you could supply more detail that would be great. Sorry having a hard time moving to Firefox but we will try to help. Message back and there will be help.
Hi Pkshadow,
I'm on Windows 8.1 but I've defined Chrome-os in my Firefox useragent. What other info do you want ?
It's very frustrating indeed. Firefox is what a browser should be like, complete, aimed at serving the end user instead of expanding the developing company by controlling the user/data/habits.
Shame on Google. It will eventually come to end but the greed by it's very nature is infinite.
Do tell me if there's anything else you need. Thanks for the reaction.
Regards.
You can try a clean re-install with Full Version Installer.
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer
Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove your Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. This process does not remove your Firefox profile data (such as bookmarks and passwords), since that information is stored in a different location.
To do a clean reinstall of Firefox, please follow these steps: Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.
- Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
- After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu
and click the close button 
).
- Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
- Windows:
- C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
- Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
- Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
- Windows:
- Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
- Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
- Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.
More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.
WARNING: Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.
Please report back to say if this helped you!
Thank you.
You could check this out 1st maybe : Profile : Make a new one and test ...:
Pkshadow Thanks for the help.
I signed into my Google account and apparently it's more relaxed now. I just did one or two captchas. I will have to do more of them to be certain. I will report back how it goes.
Okay, so it didn't work. Captchas are as difficult as they were. So re-installed Firefox but that too to no avail. It's still bad. Any other ideas ?
One more thing: How do you increase the size of the cache ? I can surely do with lot more then 350 MB's.
Thanks for the help.
I noticed that the images have a long delay to reload and there are more of them when I use a private window, not logged into my account. Google apparently doesn't like private windows for some reason.
I'm thinking of installing the Multi-Account Containers add-on to isolate Google browsing instead of using private windows, but haven't gotten around to it.
wealstarr said
One more thing: How do you increase the size of the cache ? I can surely do with lot more then 350 MB's.
It's a balance between the speed of your connection and the speed of access to your hard drive. Some users with slower or more fragmented hard drives now prefer a smaller cache.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste disk and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false (otherwise, Firefox will override your changes to #4, below, at some point in the future)
(4) Double-click the browser.cache.disk.capacity preference to display a dialog where you can enter the desired value, then click OK
Are you using any content blocking extensions?
Using such extensions or otherwise making changes to some Firefox settings might trigger the reCAPTCHA script to offer you harder challenges.
jscher2000 said
wealstarr saidOne more thing: How do you increase the size of the cache ? I can surely do with lot more then 350 MB's.It's a balance between the speed of your connection and the speed of access to your hard drive. Some users with slower or more fragmented hard drives now prefer a smaller cache.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste disk and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false (otherwise, Firefox will override your changes to #4, below, at some point in the future)
(4) Double-click the browser.cache.disk.capacity preference to display a dialog where you can enter the desired value, then click OK
It worked, thanks.
Also, how can I tell I'm using private tabs ? I just installed it and starting using it, it's my personal PC.
cor-el said
Are you using any content blocking extensions? Using such extensions or otherwise making changes to some Firefox settings might trigger the reCAPTCHA script to offer you harder challenges.
Yes, I'm using HOSTS to block certain ad sites. But it works across OS and since there isn't such a problem with other browsers so shouldn't be with Firefox. I think it's pretty safe to rule it out.
Thanks for the suggestion.
wealstarr said
Also, how can I tell I'm using private tabs ? I just installed it and starting using it, it's my personal PC.
If you opened a private window manually, there's usually an icon on the title bar near the 3 buttons at the upper right, a white mask on a purple background.
If Firefox is set to Never remember history, then it will start up in private mode with no special icon. You can check on the Options page:
- Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
- Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
- Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
- Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it
In the left column, click "Privacy & Security"
Then on the right side, these are the settings that trigger automatic private browsing:
(A) "Firefox will: Never remember history" or
(B) "Firefox will: Use custom settings for history" + a check mark for "Always use private browsing mode"
You can also see whether you are in permanent Private Browsing mode by the absence in File menu to open a "New Window", there will only be "New Private Window" present.
jscher2000 said
If you opened a private window manually, there's usually an icon on the title bar near the 3 buttons at the upper right, a white mask on a purple background.
If Firefox is set to Never remember history, then it will start up in private mode with no special icon. You can check on the Options page:
- Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
- Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
- Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
- Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it
In the left column, click "Privacy & Security"
Then on the right side, these are the settings that trigger automatic private browsing:
(A) "Firefox will: Never remember history" or
(B) "Firefox will: Use custom settings for history" + a check mark for "Always use private browsing mode" </blockquote>
Okay, thanks for the help. I'm in normal mode so that too can be ruled out. Only thing left is to contact Google and let them know how shallow they are.
cor-el said
You can also see whether you are in permanent Private Browsing mode by the absence in File menu to open a "New Window", there will only be "New Private Window" present.
That's an easy one, thanks cor-el. Yeah I'm in normal mode. No matter what Google does, even if I abandon Firefox this will only be because of Google regardless no matter what it does, I will not use Chrome or any other Google product.
One more thing guys, my Firefox loses it's cache way too often. The sites I just visited are not in the cache, total size is 10 MB even though I'm using it for hours. What am I doing wrong ? How can I make data stick to the cache ?
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.enabled is set to false, no issues there.
wealstarr said
One more thing guys, my Firefox loses it's cache way too often. The sites I just visited are not in the cache, total size is 10 MB even though I'm using it for hours.
A web server can instruct Firefox not to cache individual files; this would be more common with sites that display sensitive data or update frequently. Also, of course, private window files are not cached to disk.
What is your current cache size setting? By default, it seems to be around
browser.cache.disk.capacity = 358400
That's 350 x 1024.
My cache size is 2 GB's. I have around 364 GB space on this particular volume but my internet is often slow (after using the data quota) so I would like to keep as much data as possible. Also, 99% of the time, I'm visiting the same sites.
Since last reported to now, Firefox seems to have kept everything. I just want it to work that way.
Hello there with Firefox. We understanding Youre questions. We suggest that using Firefox as primair option is better thing. IT s beter and a more thing.
its really about firefox gentlemen.
Have fun.
greetings firefox
Please disregard above post.