Mozilla has published a new test pilot project for the organization's Firefox web browser that brings Cliqz suggestions to Firefox's address bar.

Cliqz, available as a standalone desktop browser, mobile apps, and a Firefox extension, is a service that returns rich suggestions as you type.

While most browsers support suggestions, they are limited usually to search queries, page titles, or URLs. Cliqz advances that concept by delivering results directly while you type.

If you type "weather Essen" for instance, you get a weather report and forecast delivered to you directly without having to open any sites for that.

Please note that the Cliqz Test Pilot experiment appears to be limited to deliver German results right now. While it does understand English queries, e.g. weather "cityname", all of its results are in German right now even if your version of Firefox is set to a different language.

The experiment works like any other available for Firefox. Head over to the Firefox Test Pilot website, and install the Test Pilot extension first if you have not done so already.

Once that is out of the way, open the Cliqz page on the Test Pilot site and click on the enable link there to activate it.

Make sure you read the privacy information on the page before you do so. Information, what you type or do, is collected. This includes web page interactions like mouse movements or time spent on sites.

Second note: Mozilla holds an investment in the German Cliqz GMBH since 2016. This was done to strengthen web search in regards to privacy according to the German press release.

Third note: The experiment replaces the home page and the new tab page with a new version. There is no option to prevent this from happening.

It is interesting to note that the Test Pilot experiment resembles the functionality of the Firefox add-on.

You can use it to display direct results to some queries including weather reports, flight information, conversions, news, calculations and more. The experiment may prompt you to share your location with it to deliver local results. If you enter Stau for instance, the German word for traffic jam, you get prompted to share your location with the service.

A click on a result takes you to the site directly without opening a search results page first.

Closing Words

You are probably wondering why Mozilla launched a Test Pilot project for something that is already available as a browser extension. Mozilla did not tell, but the most likely reason is that experiments allow Mozilla to grab telemetry data which it would not have access to otherwise.

It remains to be seen how well this is received by users who take part in the experiment. The browser extension for Firefox is quite popular with roughly 121,000 users currently. (via Sören Hentzschel)

Summary Article Name Firefox Cliqz Test Pilot experiment available Description Mozilla has published a new test pilot project for the organization's Firefox web browser that brings Cliqz suggestions to Firefox's address bar. Author Martin Brinkmann Publisher Ghacks Technology News Logo

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