Beside that, FF was buggy in uploading large files from browser in cPanel file manager, had to use Chrome for those tasks, now's the time to do all the tasks in Chrome.

I also try to send a public newsletter to all of our ~500k customers and advise them to migrate to Chrome, mentioning this Chinese addon is enough for many to move.

This is a system add-on to update the Baidu search engine plugin. Firefox regularly polls for system add-on updates after installation. The Baidu search engine plugin is only present in the zh-CN localization of Firefox. In other versions that do not have a Baidu search engine, the update does nothing since there is nothing to update.

I don't know why this was made available to the en-US localization when it is useless here.

Anyway, this doesn't sound like a computer security or national security crisis to me. However, you seem to have a particular sensitivity, and of course you will do what you whatever you want do. That's how people are.

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/05/07/about-baidu-search-update-in-firefox/

Filtering by locale would be "extremely difficult" and "potentially buggy" according to one entry, and that is probably the main reason why Baidu Search Update was shipped to all users.

Otherwise it is not a concern, especially if you do not use Baidu search anyways.

I've got a very particular sensitivity against Ru/Cn, you're right.

Specially when Firefox removes Yahoo! from its search engines and then add Baidu!

Specially when Firefox does not show this addon in about:addons

It's all about behaviors, now, after uninstalling FF for the last time, I noticed that traces of FF are left in:

Program Files Common Program Files Program Data AppData\Local AppData\LocalLow AppData\Roaming and much more in registry...

I'm a developer more near 2 decades, I don't appreciate this kind of installation, this is the part and parcel of the free software.

James said

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/05/07/about-baidu-search-update-in-firefox/

Filtering by locale would be "extremely difficult" and "potentially buggy" according to one entry, and that is probably the main reason why Baidu Search Update was shipped to all users.

Otherwise it is not a concern, especially if you do not use Baidu search anyways.

I just have seen that, will use the tips, thanks though :)

A manager think that if FF is losing its market share on a fast speed, such silly decisions are the reason, swap Yahoo with Baidu! Make it hidden! Now I'm sending near 510,000 emails to warn our customers about the case, that's my part. Good luck everyone and thanks for the great info you all shared :)

Filtering by locale would be "extremely difficult" and "potentially buggy" according to one entry?! Don't know which entry!!! But show me a developer that can accept this joke!!!

omidsolo said

A manager think that if FF is losing its market share on a fast speed, such silly decisions are the reason, swap Yahoo with Baidu! Make it hidden! Now I'm sending near 510,000 emails to warn our customers about the case, that's my part. Good luck everyone and thanks for the great info you all shared :)

Mozilla dropped Yahoo (completely) for a good while now as Firefox as of 57.0 in Nov 2017 was when Mozilla went back to using Google as the default on U.S., Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan because they needed a option to replace Yahoo in those areas that had Yahoo as default. So Yahoo was not swapped with Baidu.

Reasons for moving away from Yahoo is in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/712925

So in your jumping to unfounded conclusions you are misinforming people to downgrade to big brother Google Chrome. How nice.

Mozilla actually cares about Firefox users privacy while Google does not care about users privacy in comparison.

https://www.mozilla.org/privacy/firefox/ https://www.mozilla.org/privacy/

This extension doesn't install a new search engine. It merely checks if the Baidu search engine is installed and when found it updates this search engine because it is currently broken. This fix allows older Firefox versions to keep running properly. This is similar to builtin root certificates that might expire or otherwise would get compromised or distrusted like happened with Symantec certificates. if you would still use an old Firefox version that hasn't been updated for various reason like no OS or hardware support then you wouldn't be able to use this browser. In Firefox they can fix things via an SAO (System Add-On) and there is no way to only target specific Firefox versions or locales. Some of these extensions only work once and then disable themselves.

This Baidu Code Update extension changes "monline_dg" to "monline_7_dg" when it detects that the search engine is installed and hasn't been patched yet, otherwise it does nothing. So this is only a repair effort meant for users that would otherwise have a broken search engine.

I'm sure everyone knows that FF is by Google, and Google does not respect the privacy of users as well, I chosen Chrome as a temporary solution but I didn't advise Chrome as a replacement to anyone, I just informed about the FF issue! End of thread :)

Sounds weird to me: Google does not respect the privacy of users and you still want to use Google Chrome instead of Firefox that gives you a choice.

omidsolo said

I'm sure everyone knows that FF is by Google

Maybe you would like to elaborate more on this comment.

You think the web browser Firefox (or Fx for abreviation) is made by Google? ..then why is the full name of this web browser as Mozilla Firefox as it is certainly not called Google Firefox.

The company Google does Not make Firefox web browser (it is made by Mozilla) nor is it the global default search engine anymore https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/11/19/promoting-choice-and-innovation-on-the-web/ as it is only in some locales that had Yahoo as default search before ever since Fx 57.0.

You can easily change to another search engine default and add/remove search engines.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-your-default-search-settings-firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-or-remove-search-engine-firefox https://mycroftproject.com/

omidsolo said

I don't want to be disrespecting but the fact is that most software made inside Ru/Cn has governmental back doors, this

I've got some bad news for you about 90% of the software, drivers, firmware, and hardware in your computer...

I know, even hardware, Intel CPUs, vPro feature and more, but that's OK for me, the difference is why en-US version should have that, and why it's hidden? Even if no threat at all, simply don't like it! BTW, the case's closed, thanks though :)

The interesting fact is that in China most people use Tencent’s QQ browser, Alibaba’s UC browser and Baidu’s browser so not enough space for the others, all of them are also very vulnerable! BTW, most of people in China use those unsafe tools, and then, Firefox is going to do a nice show off by removing Yahoo! and including Baido! o_O Very honorable fashion :D

Again Yahoo was removed completely as of Firefox 57.0 (released back on November 14, 2017) as I said earlier. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/712925

Mozilla's decision to stop using Yahoo as a default or to come with as one of the search engine options in some locales of the desktop Firefox web browser had nothing to do with the Baidu search engine, which is only being used in the Chinese locales of Firefox.

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/11/14/firefox-features-google-as-default-search-provider-in-the-u-s-canada-hong-kong-and-taiwan/