Amazon adds Firefox browser to Fire TV and it supports YouTube

Amazon is compensating users after Google threatened to remove YouTube from Fire TV.

Amazon brings web browsing to Fire TV (AP)

Amazon on Thursday rolled out Mozilla Firefox and Amazon Silk browsers to its Fire TV devices.

This essentially means users can browse the internet via Fire TV, a Chromecast-like device but with support for built-in apps. With Fire TV, customers already have access to more than 500,000 movies and TV shows.

Amazon's browsers allow users to surf local and international news sites, video sharing services, cloud photo sites and other social news, sports and entertainment content.

"We want to make it easy for customers to access the Web from the comfort of their couch," said Marc Whitten, Vice President, Amazon Fire TV and Appstore.

Mark Mayo, Senior Vice President of Firefox, said, "Bringing Firefox to Fire TV is an exciting new way to reach our users and serve up more of the full web to everyone."

Arrival of the new features comes at a time when Google has threatened to remove its YouTube application from Fire TV. Google has been critical of Amazon's decision to pull Chromecast support for its Amazon Prime Video service. Amazon did try to mend ties with Google by allowing the sale of Chromecast on its e-commerce platform.

"Amazon doesn't carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn't make (its) Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of (our sister company) Nest's latest products," Google said earlier this month.

According technology website Engadget, Firefox browser on Amazon also supports YouTube. The browser will let viewers "surface a multitude of web content — including videos," Mark Mayo, a senior vice president at Firefox told the website.