Mozilla is expanding its universe today, moving beyond desktop software products like Firefox (browser) and Thunderbird (email) and into cloud territory – web services.
The initiative, Weave, is a new project that will store user information – like bookmarks, passwords, history, preferences and customizations, and sync it to your Firefox account. Users can then access that information in the event of a hard drive failure, or if they are on a guest machine (say, at a cyber cafe).
An early version of Weave is available (you must be using the Firefox 3 beta) here. I have not been able to sign up for an account (the confirmation email won’t send).
The service clearly overlaps with initiatives by Google and Microsoft to store user information in the cloud (and Mac users can already sync some user information to the cloud via .Mac). And there will likely be a slew of casualties in the “web OS” space, as their main selling point is to store user settings and other data and make them portable for the cyber cafe crowd.
Based on the proposed architecture and use cases, Mozilla is not yet proposing to get heavily into the online storage space. Backing up non-browser content like photos and videos would compete directly with service providers who store this information online for customers (Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket, etc.). But by managing passwords to those services, Firefox is both supporting those service providers and encouraging users to not even bother keeping a desktop copy of content. Keep it all online, and use the browser, from any computer, to keep it all organized. And don’t forget, the social graph just may be hosted by Firefox, too.
Mozilla’s vision is clearly to become the operating system of the Internet, much as Windows is the OS for most desktops. Web applications already run through the browser, and now some of the user data will be stored on servers connected to the browser, too. While Google and Microsoft fire away at each other in the battle for users’ online life, they just may want to keep an eye on Mozilla, too. It’s a non-profit, but its brand is solid gold and they just might do an end around and grab all the users.
Hopefully it’s not hard to use that thing. Mozilla should make it really easy to use and signup
The more competition, no matter the source, for cloud computing the better! This is great because it will help lower the costs of server ownership (bandwidth and overall costs)… at this point, the only thing that is going up every year now is .com registration… arg!
Jon
This sounds like a hybrid between OpenID, delicious and perhaps eventually S3. If so, what’s the differentiator that will make users choose Weave?
If the brand alone is the key, they may be in for a tough time. Firefox (the primary “thing” associated with Mozilla) is today considerably bloated, prone to memory leaks and sucks twice as more CPU that other browsers on my desktop.
This is great now i don’ have to store stuff onto ipod.
~ CARversation.com
It seems that the differentiator is that Mozilla does not want to substitute those services – rather make the usage of them more seamless.
At this point, you can use several web applications in the browser but you have to remember logins and passwords for them and you have to type in the URLs; also in some applications you have to alter the preferences every time you change the browser. Weave takes care of this problem, and Mozilla Prism will take care of the URLs problem.
Sometime in the future, you’ll be choosing web services rather than standalone software to work with. Instead of buying Microsoft Excel, you’ll “choose” i.e. Google Spreadsheets – it will run in it’s own “application” window, just as a standalone software and without asking you any logins/paswords.
At least that’s how I see it.
Before I welcome weave I really hope firefox can fix their 2.0 browser! It keeps shutting itself off when I’m on certain websites! Ughhhhhh!
@Tomasz – Wouldn’t Amazon effectively have Weave if it were to offer OpenID and a preferences store, both with low barriers to entry/implementation?
Adoption, however, is another story.
Any vendor that attempts to provide wide-spread OpenID-like user credential storage will have to have massive trust, economies of scale with regard to gaining new users, and a large existing infrastructure to serve the IDs.
The group of vendors that today have those “day 1″ advantages are Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Ebay. Since a large number of consumers distrust & passionately hate Microsoft & Ebay (1), that leaves Google & Amazon as the likely players. Amazons’ web services are enjoying wide-spread adoption now, albeit n the provider (not consumer) side.
I just don’t see any advantage to me as either a consumer or provider of web services to go with yet another vendor, especially if I intend to use or provide any of the other services.
(1) I’ll let this support my assertion:
http://www.goog...-8&oe=UTF-8
http://www.goog...-8&oe=UTF-8
… you mean the stuff IE has been able to do for six years?
fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Goodbye, Google Browser Sync
no one saw this one coming… but.. going directly against a service that its mayor source of income is going to launch may not be the best idea of all.
Onto Google-size revenue… Congratulations Mozilla!!!
@Tomasz – Wouldn’t Amazon effectively have Weave if it were to offer OpenID and a preferences store, both with low barriers to entry/implementation?
Adoption, however, is another story.
Any vendor that attempts to provide wide-spread OpenID-like user credential storage will have to have massive trust, economies of scale with regard to gaining new users, and a large existing infrastructure to serve the IDs.
The group of vendors that today have those “day 1″ advantages are Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Ebay. Since a large number of consumers distrust & passionately hate Microsoft & Ebay (1), that leaves Google & Amazon as the likely players. Amazons’ web services are enjoying wide-spread adoption now, albeit on the provider (not consumer) side.
I just don’t see any advantage to me as either a consumer or provider of web services to go with yet another vendor, especially if I intend to use or provide any of the other services.
(1) Google “ebay sucks” and “microsoft sucks”
(Mike – the other comment in moderation (probably due to the links) may be deleted – thanks, John)
Mozilla does a good job of making sure their products are well developed, and I have no doubt this venture will be any different. I’ll keep my eye on Mozilla’s progess with this one – with all the webOS hype that’s been building lately.
I’ve been using Google Browser Sync ever since it’s come out… It hasn’t been syncing correctly at all for a number of months now, so this should be awesome once it hits mainstream. Too bad I doubt I’ll be using Firefox 3 anytime soon from what I’ve seen to some of the changes they’ve made to the UI.
I hope we can have different settings for different computers
Well that’s good news for Mozilla fanatics! Just hoping for reliability and Ease of use
Nhick
http://www.itrush.com
>It’s a non-profit, but its brand is solid gold
Non-profit? Just another fool-you strategy to grab the suckers money to grow themselves. Don’t be surprised when they later announce a “Mozilla IPO”.
You just need to look at the recent wikipedia and wikia, other prior arts aside.
Remember Mozilla “raised” 100M+ in revenue “from Google”.
Finally someone launching something good, apart from Google.
Eric
http://www.InterviewBooks.com
Sounds like a very solid idea… I’ll have to try it out myself soon. This is definitely something to keep an eye on.
By the way, Mozilla held a Get Firefox contest in Japan (videos hosted on Sony’s eyeVio.jp)
http://getfirefox.jp/video/
http://eyevio.j...el/eyevio_99395
And a party – Get Firefox Video Award Show
http://tokyotro...-awards-in.html
A lot of us will be more ready to leave our data with a non-profit than a with a scheming corporation (you know who you are). Yep, this good news.
Does this mean another application capable
It’s really funny to hear people who obviously have no idea about Operating Systems internals call something an “Operating System of xyz”.
Very exciting to see that folks at Mozilla get it. This could be the driver for a fundamental shift in internet architecture away from the website and toward the homesite.
Actually Web2.0 fast becoming pretty boring. What’s new other than all the same stuff over and over again and again.
Considering that a large part of the revenue for firefox comes from Google, I truly hope that Mozilla has Google’s approval in stepping into their territory… interesting indeed
Mad Chider
http://www.chide.it
As I was saying in previous comment on other articles … Mozilla and Wikipedia are the two main players worth watching next year.
火狐狸 Firefox charge$ me?! 之 比爾 該多學點
http://blog.pix...t/post/12165519
Opera has done pretty much the same as this now for a while with Opera Link (http://www.oper.../products/link/).
It’d be nice if they could agree an interoperable standard for this sort of thing although that doesnt look likely.
Mozilla is one of the best browser, these add on features will definitely take it into next level.
Sounds like Opera’s storing service where one can upload bookmarks and synchronize…
Weird that even the big companies don’t have any new ideas anymore. Just copy and copy and copy…
Mozilla is a non profit that pays its CEO $500k per year. Er, where is the IRS on this one?
Only? too little then.. on revenue of near hundred million…
@intercon, well then it should move to for-profit status. It’s a business, not the Red Cross or Salvation Army for crying out loud… the key difference is it makes revenue, not donations. It’s not exactly out there saving peoples’ lives. A non-profit can certainly generate revenue but when it makes that much revenue and walks, talks, and acts like a corporation, then it’s pretty much a corporation; and we shouldn’t be subsidizing its achievements with tax breaks.
Sounds interesting, but I am baffled as to why they or Google do not just cut to the chase and create a fully online, web-based browser. This syncing between various computers is absurd.
Software as a Service, combined with a USB flash drive and my Pocket PC, has changed my need to always travel with my notebook computer — I therefore see the Web 2.0 phenomenon as a very positive change as more applications become network resident, and all my personal multimedia data storage is downsized to fit greater ease of mobility.
Hopefully this news will just push Opera to take their Link ability to the next level. Link needs to do more than just bookmarks, in my opinion. Competition is good.
I love Mozilla !!!
There is certainly potential if they truly implement the “cloud”
http://tinyurl.com/3yu7g4
How does Mozilla intend to get over the privacy of all this data being with/going through them? To be honest, I thought something like this from Mozilla would be more like Google Gears, except better. For instance: allowing a user to store all their e-mail data on their hard-drive, but to access it through Google Mail — that way, people get the security of “owning” their data, but use the Google Mail interface to interact with it.
Parul
http://www.bhopu.com
I’m as confused as Mozilla.. (or Mozilla as confused as me).. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (yes, am aware that saying just that would still stand to offend someone)… but well, this is an imperfect world, with perfect excuses.
Great Idea, I think it has more potential than most people might think.
Security is the obvious issue i see.
- Shelon Padmore
The email verification link that was broken (https://bugzill...g.cgi?id=409579) has been fixed. If you didn’t get the verification email, you should be able to ask for a resend and get it this time!
@start-up boy: The CEO you’re talking about that gets $500k is the CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, not the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla Corporation does indeed act like a Corporation because it is one. It’s a taxable entity, and pays taxes on the money it makes. It happens to be wholly owned by the Mozilla Foundation, which has its own director, and it’s not the same person. Also keep in mind that the company’s headquarters are located in metro San Francisco. You can’t support a family of 4 on less than $150k in that area without driving 2 hours to get to work every day (and then you’ll probably spend the difference on gas money, so it’s the same difference). Considering that the average office worker in that area probably gets that much because of the cost of living, $500k doesn’t sound like that much more for someone in an executive position.