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Is Amazon Building a New AI-Powered Web Browser? (gizmodo.com) 31

Posted by EditorDavid from the smooth-as-Silk dept.
Gizmodo reports that Amazon "is thinking about releasing a web browser, a boring-sounding project that could have massive implications." The company has sent a survey to users asking detailed questions, including which features would "convince you to download and try" a "new desktop/laptop browser from Amazon...."

The survey asked a variety of questions. Most telling was the last question: "Imagine that there is a new desktop/laptop browser from Amazon available to do. Select which of the following you would most like to know more about." The survey went on to list topics such as privacy, syncing passwords across devices, and shopping features.... Users were asked to rate the importance of features including text to speech, extensions, the availability to sync data across desktop and mobile devices, and — notably — blocking third party cookies.

Amazon seems to be seriously considering a web browser of its own, and it comes at a time when it would have an unusual impact on the advertising business. The ad industry is bracing for cataclysmic change as Google moves closer to killing third-party cookies in Chrome, the world's most popular web browser, which would kneecap one of the primary ways businesses track consumers for ads.... Part of what makes Amazon so attractive to marketers is the fact that the company sits on a treasure trove of data about what consumers are buying and what their shopping habits are like. If Amazon could match that information with the data collection that comes from a web browser, it could tip the scales of internet advertising in favor of the retail giant.
One thing Amazon asked users is whethered they'd be convinced to download and try a browser if it offered "AI-enabled tab, history, and bookmarks management to automatically sort these into categories for quick search and retrieval."
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Is Amazon Building a New AI-Powered Web Browser? More

Is Amazon Building a New AI-Powered Web Browser?

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  • I can't imagine (Score:4, Insightful)

    by unimind ( 743130 ) on Sunday March 19, 2023 @09:54AM (#63382403)

    ...this will get any serious traction. Why would anyone want to entrust all their browsing habits to Amazon? What would make them switch from whatever they're used to using now? The only thing I would consider using it for (or recommending anyone use it for) would be as a standalone Amazon app on the desktop. Then I could remove my Amazon container in Firefox and keep Amazon further siloed from the rest of my browsing.

    Also, will this browser be based on Chromium, too?

    • Captured Audience (Score:5, Insightful)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Sunday March 19, 2023 @10:19AM (#63382439)

      ...this will get any serious traction. Why would anyone want to entrust all their browsing habits to Amazon?

      Really? You can't imagine how Amazon, the largest store on the planet that charges money for premium services that tens of millions of humans use around the planet, would convince the Cheap Masses to switch to their browser?

      How hard do you really think that would be if they simply offered a 50% discount on Amazon Prime? Or even offered it for free?

      The most "offensive" thing you can do with Generation Free, is charge money for online services, so perhaps we stop pretending how we can't imagine how this would gain traction with a captured audience that's easily manipulated by price.

      • I don't think that an AI browser is a good idea. AI is usually used to decrease the amount of work that people needs to do. There is nothing to be automated with browsing, no work to be saved. Browser, together with an obligate ad blocker, is perfect as it is. AI based browser makes as much sense as the AI based "vi" editor. I have no doubt that emacs will incorporate an AI extension because emacs is a decent sized OS. However, AI is not needed for the tasks like browsing the web or writing Perl scripts, w

        • I don't think that an AI browser is a good idea. AI is usually used to decrease the amount of work that people needs to do.

          It's not hard to see how the patented 1-click audience would be attracted to a minimal effort browser.

          And as far as the point of it all, I wouldn't be surprised if 99% of the "Intelligence" in Amazon's browser is focused solely on selling you as The Product, which is a quite popular today. Just ask Social Media.

      • I kinda have to agree with the parent on this, depending on how much traction is "serious." Amazon has a lot of me-too products, and none of them seem to do very well. The Firestick, the Amazon App Store, Alexa (which is apparently the company's biggest money-loser [arstechnica.com], the Fire tablets (which they are apparently still selling)...

        Regardless of their reach, they don't seem to be very good at turning that into product success. The successes which they have had have been AWS (which I'm not calling a me-too prod

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      You mean the same people who trust all their browsing habits to Google? The same masses that give tons of money routinely to Amazon while Amazon necessarily knows personal details from the products that they purchase?

      If it will fail it's going to because it somehow sucks, not because the average person is reluctant to give their browsing data to a big well known company, which they do constantly.

      • >"You mean the same people who trust all their browsing habits to Google?"

        Indeed.

        Amazon develops browser... "Yay! Yet another Chrom* browser, with guts controlled by Google but twisted to also serve Amazon. How wonderful."

        Really, we *do* need more browsers, but NOT ones based on Chromium (since that is all we have right now, other than Firefox). And NOT controlled by some company who wants to just twist it to serve only their own company.

        In the meantime....

        1) Download and use Firefox. Complain loudl

  • Yet another (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Sunday March 19, 2023 @09:59AM (#63382413)
    Yet another piece of intrusive and unneeded software to avoid in the future.
  • I can't wait for the AI hooplah to go away. I remember back in the 80's when it was popular - things like expert systems were going to change the world - thankfully it disappeared. Now it's back. It has always come in waves, failed to deliver, then gone into hibernation for a decade. It's well part time for the AI everywhere hype to calm down.
    • I was in the middle of my education in the 90's when AI was popular again. I realized its no better than the 80's or even the 60's "AI", its just an improvement of hardware that's available. It's the same today, neural nets have been around forever, just not with this level of hardware. Today, it does look like the hardware is powerful enough for very good outcomes. I unfortunately don't think it is going away, with faster hardware, its just going to improve at least up to a point.
  • Web browser are pushed thru user's throats without even asking permissions: Chrome, IE, Edge, etc.

    Are you getting soft Amazon? or is it so freaking expensive, both in time and money, to build one?
  • A browser not written by a marketing platform in order to scrape more details about my personal preferences.

    • >"My top feature. A browser not written by a marketing platform in order to scrape more details about my personal preferences."

      Download Firefox
      Install UBlock Origin

      Done, your wish is fulfilled.

  • Use "AI' in a sentence (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 ) on Sunday March 19, 2023 @12:44PM (#63382811)
    Microsoft:
    "We are going to put AI into your coffee and donut, and Outlook, and Edge, and Word, and...."

    Google:
    "Microsoft is putting AI into everything, we better do that too. Announce something."

    Amazon:
    "How can we dupe people into buying more stuff? I know! Make a catalog, but call it a "browser with AI !!"

  • Web browser? (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Sunday March 19, 2023 @04:41PM (#63383453)

    I would prefer that they use it to show me what I search for on their page.

    Google finds more articles on Amazon than Amazon itself and Google search also sucks lately.

  • If one of the questions was, doesn't hog all the system resources, I would download it.

  • Amazon has had a browser called Amazon Silk for years. It's yet another another reskinned Chromium fork built for their devices like Fire tablets and Fire TV. It's not much of a leap to bring this to Desktop. I'm actually surprised they haven't already.

    Personally I'd stay away. Amazon's software has always been dodgy at best. I've been a long-time user in the Amazon ecosystem and their apps--such as Amazon Music and Amazon Photos--have always felt like they've lacked any clear direction in UI design. Their

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