Mozilla Labs project - Firefox Sync, will be included in the standard package of Firefox

Not much time has passed since the announcement of the renaming of the Mozilla Weave project to Firefox Sync, and there has already been a message that this extension is leaving the walls of Mozilla Labs.

Along the Personas Trail

On the first of June, the long-awaited news about the end of development, which lasted almost two and a half years, was finally posted on the Mozilla Labs blog . In fact, this means that Firefox Sync is no longer a pilot project, since the developers added all the features and capabilities they wanted, and now the extension is officially included in the list of developments that will be integrated into future major releases of Firefox, in particular, in Firefox 4.

Ragavan Srinivasan , one of the developers of Firefox Sync:

We are pleased to announce that “Weave Sync,” a project from Mozilla Labs, has officially been completed and is now part of the Firefox development plan. It is now known as Firefox Sync and will be one of the key features of the next major release of Firefox. Until this time, you can download Firefox Sync , like any other regular add-on.

In addition to releasing the extension and changing its name, the latest version of Firefox Sync (1.3) includes several new features and changes:

• Translation into more than 15 languages, including German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian
• Simplified installation and registration process
• Button for access to all tabs open on other PCs and much more ...

I express my gratitude to all those of you who tested Sync, while it was part of Mozilla Labs and sent your reports - without you release would not have happened. And although this project has already been completed, we are still happy with your feedback and suggestions.

And yes, Mozilla Labs will continue to focus on finding ways to improve the usability of Firefox, giving users complete control over personal information and providing new opportunities for developers to create innovative network services. For example, we are currently working on extensions such as Contacts and Account Manager .

And finally. In case you missed our latest news, we are working on an application for the iPhonebased on Firefox Sync technology. The application is called “Firefox Home,” and it will give iPhone users instant access to their browsing history in Firefox, bookmarks and a set of tabs from the last browser session, in addition to the awesome features of the “Awesome Bar” (displaying sites in the browser address bar after typing the first letters of the site’s name or the words included in its description).

Set up Firefox Sync on your computer right now in the future to be ready for Firefox Home for iPhone right away.

What is Firefox Sync?

Firefox Sync - a new solution from Mozilla, designed to combine your tabs, browser history, bookmarks, passwords and even settings on different platforms, which include Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and mobile platforms (currently available for Fennec and experimental client for iPhone).

One of the key features that distinguish Firefox Sync from solutions from other developers (for example, Xmarks ) is the ability to raise its own synchronization server on an open API. Also, old versions of bookmarks will be saved as a separate copy during initial synchronization, so that in case of any errors the user can always restore accidentally lost sites to favorites.

Some screenshots

Please note that all screenshots open in a larger format when you click on them. _{Main settings window Initial synchronization window}

List of major changes in version 1.3

• (1.3) Update version to 1.3 final with correct locales
• (1.3rc4) Fix form data incompatibility with new javascript engine on trunk
• (1.3rc3) Fix issue with one-way sync to the server resulting in HMAC mismatch messages
• (1.3rc2) Fix compat with new form manager on trunk
• (1.3b7) Add locale updates, no code changes
• (1.3b6) Fix issue with Reset Sync causing sync to partly stop working
• (1.3b6) Visual polish and cleanup
• (1.3b5) Rebrand as Firefox Sync
• (1.3b5) Move to new about: sync-tabs and about: sync-logs (instead of about: weave- *)
• (1.3b5) Clean up account creation wizard and password changing
• (1.3b5) Fix merge choice for wiping remote clients

conclusions

Mozilla has a very convenient and competitive extension for synchronizing users' personal data. Already at the moment it provides all the necessary functions to the ordinary ordinary user of the browser. And if you consider that the developers on the blog promise to listen to the opinions and wishes of users, it is worth thinking that the extension synchronization is also just around the corner. In any case, I would like to hope so, since at the moment this is the only minus of Firefox Sync.