I actually don't agree, and the reason is - non tech people. You and me can install plugins but ordinary people don't do that. So the default experience must be good, offering improvements to the experience over Google Chrome.

Otherwise all privacy features could also be plugins. Imagine if that was true. Firefox would have no identity and you would have to install plugins and make it your own.

So some features should be built in. Maybe the ability to get pop-ups about false reviews will actually make users go "wow that is so useful".

Agreed. This is well outside the scope of native browser functions. Firefox already has a rich extensions ecosystem. They can just include the extension with the browser by default for all I care, but as a native feature, this makes no sense.

That's appalling customer service.

Amazon stopped me, giving a generic message about fake reviews on this product

Can you elaborate? I've never experienced this and would like to understand how they do it.

And unfortunately Firefox is sitting at 2 to 3% so even if Amazon were dependant on fake reviews, they have little to fear due to the low marketshare.

Amazon makes a lot of money facilitating the sales of counterfeit goods.

Agreed. Might actually give more faith in using Amazon.

Hmm their Amazon basics might suffer. I think Amazon basics true offering is cheap but not scam.

Why would this hurt Amazon?

A product with 2002 reviews suddenly has only 2 reviews, and they are not the nicest ones... Whole Amazon with 2002 gazillion reviews suddenly has only 2 gazillion... :-)

Seriously:

I guess they own several of these "companies" where you can buy fake reviews for your product. And now these are facing their revenues sinking.

They’re just building Fakespot into the browser so the same way Fakespot does, by analyzing the user who posted the review

I don't agree with the assertion that fake reviews don't benefit them, but I may be missing something. Reviews help drive consumer behavior and more reviews lead to more sales from those who are unable or unwilling to be more discerning. (Amazon takes a cut)

For others, it the idea or presence of fake reviews might drive them to a "trusted" Amazon Basics alternative, also leading to sales with a higher margin for Amazon.

Additionally, recycling listing ASINs is a common tactic that Amazon could stop and is a source of "fake" (or at least, irrelevant in content and misleading in score) reviews. There's minimal enforcement of rules for review integrity, such as verified purchases or quid pro quo "warranties" and "free gifts" for 5 star reviews.

All the evidence I see points to Amazon preferring the status quo.

Per the article, they are integrating Fakespot into Firefox, so it won't be different. Hopefully the tool can be improved

I've already been using the fakespot extension for a few years, and honestly, it feels pretty useless. I've seen it give A and B scores for products that I know have fake reviews. And on Amazon or Walmart and similar sites, we already know that the reviews are bullshit, so what difference does it really make for it to tell me that? It's not like I have any better option in most cases.

No... 2 to 4 star reviews are more realistic. 5 star reviews are either fake or they got lucky and nothing bad happened. 1 star reviews usually are from people that were PISSED OFF while 2 to 4 star reviews are generally from people with more nuanced opinions than "this product cured my cancer" or "this product set fire to my cat and stole my significant other"