The Mozilla Firefox 118 web browser is now available for download ahead of its official release on September 26th, when it will be rolling out to various of the supported platforms.
I consider Firefox 118 a major release because it finally brings the built-in translation feature for websites. Previously planned for Firefox 117, the new translation feature will let you automatically translate websites from one of the supported languages to another.
The translation feature can be accessed from a new “Translate page” menu entry in the application menu (the hamburger menu on the far right side of the window). When clicked, a pop-up dialog will open in place to let you choose the languages you want to translate from and to.
Translation is really cool. It’s rare we get new features these days, mostly it’s just better and better tracking protection which is nice also, but this feels very fresh.
Just keep doing things Google will never do, and show why it’s better for the user.
I get that but Google has had built-in translation for years! There are other features that Chrome and Chromium-based browsers have that Firefox still doesn’t including, some sort of implementation of tab groups, easy profile switching, having multiple open simultaneously with only one copy of Firefox (you don’t need multiple copies of Chrome to have multiple profiles).
They dont have local translation, it requires sending data to Google.
That’s irrelevant for 99% people sadly, if people cared about that more they would have already switched to FF ages ago. Google Translate was the top dog for years (and still is for most scenarios) so people are more than happy that their translation was being done by the best service around.
Yes I know, but people who use and appreciate Firefox will like the feature. The majority don’t care as always. They run windows with full telemetry and use Chrome as a browser. :)
The world is filled with mostly “don’t care” people. Nothing we can do about that. They are also not thinking for themselves at all. Perfect slaves to the system.
You should edit the comment to mention that. I just thought you meant translation. While its cool its wouldn’t be beneficial except for users or in situations with unstable wifi or times when you have no internet but have pages load.
And privacy, that is the most important thing for me. Why would I want Google to see what I want to translate any more than I want them to see what web sites I visit and what I search for.
uuuuuh what?
Nope. The translation is not built in into Chrome. It’s running on Google. That’s like saying Chrome has “built-in Wikipedia”!
There’s like 12 to choose from in Firefox. (Still, admittedly, not nearly as good enough as Tab Groups were in Opera Presto, or in Firefox Aurora)
this one is defo conceded. There is a profile manager, but they’ve never made it accessible while Firefox is itself running, not that I know.
¿??? This has existed since at least 2011 in Firefox. Not to mention there’s also
--no-remote.Floorp has those features and I’ve been thinking about switching for a while.
Google has had this feature in Chrome for YEARS, bro.
No this translation doesn’t send data to Google, it is local.
Well, it’s a website, i bet google already has access to whatever might get translated…
No its a feature in Firefox. A firefox button you can press to translate the website. I played with it this morning and it’s pretty cool. Animates the text as it is being translated, without sending the data anywhere.
I know
I am saying that google is already in business of scanning websites, so sending another website to Google is like throwing a bucket of water in the ocean.
Of course it depends what else gets sent along, so it’s always better to run locally