Tag archive for "Mozilla"
Way back when, we had mentioned that Mozilla’s plans for “Weave,” their platform for syncing browsing information between different desktop/mobile clients, included support for synchronizing Firefox extensions or, as they’re known now, “add-ons.”
Well, it turns out that add-on synchronization isn’t isn’t here yet and keeps getting bumped from the official Weave roadmap. So, our plans for a completely synchronized Firefox experience among our PCs were somewhat dashed… until now.
Alright, it’s happened to me no less than one trillion times now and I’m sure it’s happened to you: you fill out a contact form or a form for tech support only to lose every carefully-chosen word in some fluke accident like a browser crash or the accidental closing of a tab.
If it has happened, save yourself some trouble in the future by installing the Lazarus add-on for your browser. (Lazarus for Mozilla Firefox | Lazarus for Google Chrome – sorry IE users)
We’ve been using Mozilla’s Weave extension/platform for some time now and the team, today, launched Weave version 0.7. Nothing major to report in this release, just some performance and UI improvements. However, Mozilla’s always had plans to enable the synchronization of your many different Firefox add-ons. I suspect that’ll be something that comes with the release of 1.0 but who knows what 0.8 or 0.9 will bring…
Mozilla announced the official 1.0 release of Prism: the utility designed to enable your favorite web apps to live outside the browser.
Not only does Prism allow end users to create separate desktop apps for each of their favorite sites (think Gmail, Facebook, etc.), it also allows site devs to specify certain settings that can be activated specifically on Prism apps… settings like fonts, proxy settings, tray icons, etc.
The following is just a snippet of information about Prism’s history and future but you can read more on the official release post… or just check out prism.mozilla.com.
“The ability to run stand-alone web apps and access them like normal desktop apps provides instant benefits to end users. However, a number of the advantages are only available when software developers take advantage of Prism-specific features. With the release of Prism 1.0 beta we are ready to start fostering an ecosystem that makes it easier for developers to create and distribute compelling web app bundles.”
Are you using Prism… or do you just prefer the application shortcuts that can be created by Google’s Chrome browser? Voice your opinions in the comments.
Update: Just so you know, there are two ways to go about using Prism: a desktop application (for the Linux, Mac & Windows platforms – run it and just fill in the URL of the site you’d like to turn into a separate desktop app) or by the Prism Firefox extension.
Weave 0.3, Mozilla’s browser information synchronization architecture (which we’ve previously covered), has officially been released.
With Weave, you can synchronize your browser’s bookmarks, browsing history, passwords as well as any tabs that you might have open across any of your PCs – safely and securely. Here’s Mozilla’s official project description:
“Weave Sync is a prototype that encrypts and securely synchronizes the Firefox experience across multiple browsers, so that your desktop, laptop and mobile phone can all work together. It is part of the Weave project, which aims to integrate services more closely with the browser.”
Along with the 0.3 release, Mozilla is now officially supporting Fennec; Mozilla’s own mobile browser. Eventually, at least according to the project roadmap, Weave will enable you to synchronize your browser preferences and add-ons (read: extensions) in addition to all of the aforementioned items.
Give it a try by downloading from the official Mozilla add-ons site: Weave 0.3. Or, check out the official Weave project site at http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/weave/.
Do note, however, that the 0.3 release requires Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 or greater… which is still in a testing phase. (Hence the “beta” label.) Plus, if you do decide to g’head and upgrade your version of Firefox in order to take a peek at Weave, some of your other add-ons might very well break in the process. A great number of mine did.
Just over two months ago, we were among the first to bring attention to a preview version of the del.icio.us extension designed to be compatible with the latest release (3.0) of the Firefox web browser.
Five days ago, the Del.icio.us team announced and subsequently delivered the final version of that extension to the official Mozilla Firefox add-ons repository. Be sure to check out the official blog post from the del.icio.us team detailing all the new features in the release: "Firefox 3, Delicious and You."
Overall, the extension provides a great way to keep your bookmarks (with tags and notes, too) synchronized on each of your computers and, of course, on your http://del.icio.us account.
(FoT Tip: If you’re a nut for synchronization, you should also check out the Mozilla Weave extension for Firefox. In addition to bookmark synchronization, Weave also allows you to sync stored passwords, cookies, browser history and saved form data. Check out what we had to say about that a couple of weeks ago.)
Microsoft devotees shouldn’t feel left out as the team has also announced and released a beta version of an add-on for Internet Explorer.
It’s been quite some time since Google updated the official "Google Browser Sync" Firefox extension. If you’re unfamiliar with it, the extension enabled you to synchronize your browser bookmarks, history and passwords with any other computer on which you might be running Firefox.
Not only has it not been updated since 2006, the extension isn’t even compatible with the 3rd release of the Mozilla Firefox browser. (As is typically the case with Google, mum’s the word on any plans and nearly 100 status requests have gone unanswered in the official forum for Google Firefox extensions.)
Mozilla answered the cries of many, however, when it released "Weave" late last year. The official extension (from the company who brought you the Firefox browser itself) allowed for synchronization of your bookmarks, history and saved form data. With the next release, they added support for cookies.
Now, with today’s release, they add support for passwords as well…thus leaving Google Browser Sync entirely useless.
The extension even allows for developers to extend Weave for their own applications but you can read more about that, and Weave’s many other features, on the Mozilla Labs blog. Or, you can just download it now: https://services.mozilla.com/.
Note: once you begin the initial synchronization, be prepared for the browser to choke just a little bit while the sync occurs. Once you’re finished with that initial synchronization, however, it’ll be as smooth as silk to keep your browser information up-to-date on all your computers.
Now, if they only would allow for synchronization of Firefox extensions…
Feature, Mozilla, Software, Web 2.0, Yahoo!
We’ve tested quite a few bookmarking tools and how well they integrate into the Firefox Web browser: Diigo, del.icio.us, Google Browser Sync, Mozilla Weave and more. The best has always been, and continues to be, the del.icio.us Firefox extension. The extension’s integration into the Firefox Web browser is unparalleled and offers the following priceless, time-saving features:
This is one of the few tools that I use every single day and, unfortunately, it’s core functionality became broken when Mozilla released the beta versions of Firefox v3. It’s taken quite a while but Yahoo! has finally released an updated version of the extension yesterday afternoon:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/delicious-firefox-extension/message/2204.
I found it took a bit of maneuvering to get to the installation file so I’ve gone ahead and posted it on our site for you to download. Just save the file, open your Firefox Add-Ons window and drag-and-drop the .xpi in there. The installation process will proceed and you’ll be prompted to download the update.
By the way, kudos to Yahoo! for listening to their users and pushing out an update to this extension. The final version of Firefox 3.0 hasn’t even been released so they technically didn’t "have" to release a version yet but they realized there was a huge demand for it. Are you paying attention, Google? I only ask because it’s been almost two years since Google Browser Sync was released and very little has been done to keep it updated. In addition, you’ll notice that almost every post in the Google Firefox Extensions newsgroup remains unanswered.
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