Mozilla introduces new Weave online service

Mozilla Labs launched a new online service called Weave yesterday. The idea behind Weave is that all your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords and are synced to your Mozilla account via Firefox.

As Mozilla Labs GM Chris Beard describes in this post, the goals of Weave are to:

• provide a basic set of optional Mozilla-hosted online services
• ensure that it is easy for people to set up their own services with freely available open standards-based tools
• provide users with the ability to fully control and customize their online experience, including whether and how their data should be shared with their family, their friends, and third-parties
• respect individual privacy (e.g. client-side encryption by default with the ability to delegate access rights)
• leverage existing open standards and propose new ones as needed
• build a extensible architecture like Firefox

While it's interesting to see Mozilla moving into services, I am not sure if this matters yet.

[belal12]

This is terrible. Mozilla is a well respected company because they stick to what they do best: provide a great web browser. Their Mozilla suite is the best example of what happens when they try to go into other fields and fail miserably. Same thing with Thunderbird, Sunbird and whatever else they will try to churn up in the future. Mozilla needs to continue their focus on delivering the best web browser to the world and not other unnecessary ventures where they are not good at.

This weave service, is not bad in itself. It''s just that Mozilla should not be doing it. Perhaps if they created a independent organization off of this and let other companies contribute, it may be more beneficial.

[lmasanti]

Apache has its own "incubator" projects, to help develop ideas until they probe worthwhile.
I also want that --after proof of concept-- it become an independent part of the organization.

[ravencub]

Why bother writing this article if you're not going to explain "why" you're not sure it matters...

[menotbug]

Exactly!!!

[outlookhazy]

Wow! That's a great idea! I've always wanted to reduce the security of all my saved passwords combined down to the security of one!
...are they kidding? Storing all my passwords, bookmarks, access to my email, etc. on some remote server is the last thing that I would want to do. For the gullible it would only take one good phishing site to get all that info; including bank account access for some.

[menotbug]

Yea, but would anyone be stupid enough to save overly-sensitive passwords like bank account passes and numbers? Or don't you just click: Never save passwords for this site????

[ikenna4u]

OK. So how is this going to be different from Google Browser sync for Firefox http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/ ?

Or is this meant to compete with it?

[menotbug]

I was just about to say that, mate. It's probably to compete with it. I don't see the point of competing tho; isn't firefox supposed to be one of the best browsers because of the third-party plug-ins support?

[arlandean]

uhhh...mind if I pass? Something about having sensitive personal data on a server far beyond my control located who-knows-where makes me nervous. I'm silly that way.

Maybe this project will add value in other ways though. We'll see.

[Tony McCune]

MS tried with Passport and failed. I trust Mozilla more than I do MS but nobody get's to hold all the keys to the castle.

[Andy kaufman]

Only those who aren't paranoid about their personal info getting stolen would use this service.

Sometimes it pays to be paranoid, in this case I think it does pay to be paranoid. Pass!

[pjaiello]

I agree with Andy, I'm really not too keen on keeping my personal info stored in that way. I don't mind typing it in!

[jeanl]

Mozilla Firefox or Thunderbird or Seamonkey are all excellent browsers and e-mail client software with lots of feature pluggin at personal preference and choice. However, it's a shame that it start slow, particularly Firefox, in windows of all version. That's counter productive and turn off many people. in theory, Firefox should have capture 50% of the PC user as default browser, but a decade after, still unable to penetrate that number : 50+1%.

As mobil wireless becoming popular, Mozilla should have see Firefox and Thunderbird for the device. So far, no sight of it., not even google consider using it in it's opensource wireless phone project..

[Nimimbu]

...Boring. Who needs to log into all these separate computers? I've got a blackberry with saved passwords and bookmarks that I use when my laptop is not accessible.

I'm getting tired of seeing people who get paid to write make inexcusable mistakes in the very first paragraph. Is anyone in your office proofreading this? It's not just here, it's most major news outlets, and it's ridiculous.