Additional info - from gmail.

If you load up gmail, open up an email, and press backpage you return to the Inbox as you'd expect. If, howver, you perform a Gmail search for a specific word, name or email and click on an email from the result list, then press backpage, you get the following error

Document Expired

This document is no longer available.

The requested document is not available in Firefox’s cache.

As a security precaution, Firefox does not automatically re-request sensitive documents.
Click Try Again to re-request the document from the website.

So the cache is working fine but if you perform a query the cache stops working normally. Ideas? The documentation on this is slim.

There are definitely issues with Firefox 98.

Last time I checked (a little over a week ago) the

download

attribute wasn't behaving normally and / or not even being acknowledged.

I'm on 98.0.2 and have not noticed issues.

Oh, and my Web Inspector keeps failing (ie. it fails to appear when I summon it).

This has never happened before with any previous version of FF I can remember.

I am also using FF 98.02 (OSX) and not seeing any issues. I did notice that if I right-click to "Save Link As" (for .pdf files) it now shows a download status to see when it is finished.

Might a re-install help?

No issues for me either, however, I have all privacy and security locked down, third party disabled, and run NoScript in default mode at all times, which means all js that is not primary is ignored. Also run Ad Block so no ads, and back button always goes back to here I started.

NOTE: this is not the average user and most webmasters would be appalled that all the bells and whistles and other stuff are ignored or disavowed, or that their site is non-viewable at all (resulting in visitor shoulder shrugs and back buttons to the next serp result).

Just my experience with FF 98.0.02

DISCLAIMER: this is my personal set up. I maintain on a separate machine full bloated security leaking versions to test site work on dev machines IF REQUIRED. Else I don't code it that way in the first place.

As do I Tangor.

*update* - after significant time spent with the dev team on one affected site they suggested it's not on their end and they noticed some things.

- Many settings people comfortable with "locking down" their presumably work computers on Firefox were reset by the update
- Enhanced tracking protection was turned back on depending on other settings (see shield icon in url bar). It breaks some sites.
- Additional permissions, such as allowing collection of canvas data, was turned off if it was on for an INDIVIDUAL site that requires it.
- Cloudflare is working on some level with the browser even if completely blocked (verified by cloudflare icon appears).

There's more but this seems to be happening to "important" sites such as a financial institution site, a betting site which collects data and has financial transactions, and email.

Some about config "fixes" don't work anymore depending on other settings... and the browser simply does not allow for the same level of lockdown we used to have - and forces other types which are not compatible with some important sites. None of this is happening on any non critical and non-fnancial site. Something has definitely changed with version 98, our ability to "lock down" as we, as advanced users, want is affected.

I'm not a fan of the bookmark star logo being moved to the url bar and made non-removable. It is empty on non-bookmarked pages and bright yellow on bookmarked ones. I'd prefer not to broadcast that type of info on screen.

Lots has changed, there really should have been more documentation.

I suspect that a LOT of what has changed is a result of Mozilla boycotting Russia over the Ukraine crisis. Why, and what they are doing, is making a mess of ordinary security conscious conditions. And yes ... no documentation has been presented.

I've spent more time in about:config than I like...

And the other browsers are not much better.

Where this leads in the future might be of concern for webmasters in that if the application (browser!) is compromised/controlled, what happens to our traffic?

Just sayin' ... and hope I am wrong!

Indeed Tangor, it is of concern, in a reset world where people rent only, or borrow everything for free, to get rid of having "things in the house" it's concerning to think that advertising might be made obsolete too.

Anyway - another update. Just more weirdness coming from the way Firefox handles websocket and double requesting cache stuff, if you look up something like "widgets" in search and click on an article link in the results you go to that page. So far so good. Now if you backpage you'd expect to go back to your search, but you don't always anymore. A side effect of how cache is being double validated(and often failing the re-request) is that you get sent along to an affiliate site selling widgets, not back to the search engine.

No affiliate cookies are set - happens less than 10% of the time but on specific sites it's 100% of the time.

I quintuple checked this - there is no virus, no funky coding, no ill intent... it's 100% the browser trying to handle cache a little differently than in the past causing a cascading failure and, in this case, being sent along to an affiliated site to buy the product the page was about.

I tested the pre-load of some pages and, when this is turned off in about:config, along with other tightened security changes... yeah, the browser is quite unpredictable.

On a hunch I set up some connection monitoring and just normal browsing around the net is resulting in pages appearing in the logs that were never visited. While some of that is normal what wasn't normal is that these were always right after a caching authentication failure.

And boy oh boy does a site that isn't properly redirecting from http to https BEFORE initiating content load making it worse.

Again - your average user with near default settings won't notice that the back end of what's happening has changed.

Side note: The specific way these things are happening suggests, to me, that private browsing is now impossible. Some settings no longer do what you would expect.

With the web as fast it is these days I changed my cache size to 1mb (one megabyte) years back. Always wanted the freshest version of any site. I also clear the cache every time I close FF---which is at least once a day.

Not saying that will correct what you are seeing, but it might go a long way to figuring out what else might be going on.

Preventing WebRTC from leaking local IP addresses has apparently become problematic with some settings but can be assigned to a 3rd party app to control.

GEO location settings were responsible for much of the above.
- Allowing geo location when prompted results in a temporary only approval lasting 60 seconds which, if you're browsing a site you're likely to use for more than 60 seconds, will cause a re-prompt. If you just hit send on an email after the initial 60 seconds elapsed you sometimes get logged out while clicking accept. It depends on the site.

BUT... in the past you were able to grant a site permanent allow privilege and it didn't have to re-prompt. That's apparently not the case anymore?

geo.timeout can be raised in about:config from 6000 (60 seconds) to something higher like 60000 (10 minutes). Not ideal.

Here's one piece of good news about Firefox 98:

I feel like I've been waiting forever (at least 4 years?) for the

<dialog>

HTML element to achieve cross-browser support.

It appears it's finally happened in March 2022: both Firefox and Safari can now handle the element, alongside Chrome and Opera.

See: [caniuse.com...]

Since 2018 I've been a fan of dimming the screen and introducing a drop-down console. I do this in specific user-initiated contexts. I'm aware of the interruptive approach embraced by yelling, pushy marketeers (abusive UX?) but it doesn't mean there isn't great utility in the approach when it's deployed with consideration.

I've always used handrolled CSS and JS to achieve this effect, but this element , especially when combined with the

::backdrop

CSS pseudo-element, will make things a lot simpler and more elegant.

More info: [developer.mozilla.org...]