After I noticed Firefox has removed the Pocket branding but kept the Pocket stories, I also noticed the settings screen on the homepage no longer lets you disable sponsored stories or links.
Firefox 115:
Firefox 139:
You can still remove these advertisements, but you have to leave the homepage and dig through the settings to find that option.
I agree theyre putting effort into their AI branded browser now over Arc, but he did reiterate that Arc would remain in maintenance mode. Security patches, fixes would still get implemented but it's being facilitated by 2-3 engineers only and no new features will be developed for it. Has no bright future, but I wouldn't call that dead. He equated it to Safari, essentially.
Based on the language of the post, it sure sounds like the CEO regrets putting resources into Arc and talks about pulling the plug sooner. Maybe they'll keep throwing resources at it, but this sounds like continuing to do so would simply be more of a regrettable decision:
I also don't know how sustainable the company is, or how novel their new browser (which is basically Google Chrome with a chatbot built in) will be to people who already have Google Chrome as an option. Did the CEO mention how many employees they have? I'd encourage you to venture, I guess, if not, and then imagine how many salaries that cost per year...
Good info to know, thanks.