Good news for Amazon Fire TV users: you can now browse the web on your big screen, as Amazon has launched its own Silk browser and Mozilla Firefox on the media streamer.
The move comes after Google earlier this month announced plans to pull its YouTube app from Amazon’s Fire TV over the online retailer’s refusal to carry some of its products. Google is planning to pull the plug on YouTube for Fire TV on Jan. 1, but this new web-browsing feature should allow people to access the service by simply navigating to YouTube.com.
Amazon didn’t mention YouTube specifically in its announcement, but said the browsers on Fire TVBest Price at Amazon will offer access to “World Wide Web including popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Reddit, as well as local and international news sites, video sharing services, cloud photo sites, and other social news, sports, and entertainment content.”
We reached out to Amazon to ask specifically about YouTube.com. In response, an Amazon spokesperson told PCMag.com said “The Firefox and Silk browsers are able to open any URL. Video sharing websites are one of the many places on the web that customers can access.”
In a blog post, Amazon danced around the YouTube subject, writing that users will be able to “watch that viral cat video everyone is talking about.” Users will also be able to “read and watch news from … local or national news organizations,” “connect with friends on social media,” check their online dating profiles, look for jobs, and “basically, visit any website or search for anything you can think of,” Amazon wrote.