weave

Browser synchronization has been available to Firefox users for more than a year from Mozilla's Weave add-on. The latest version, still in beta, promises to emphasize its ties to the browser with a new name and better features.

When the final version is released, Firefox Sync 1.3 will include Firefox Mobile (Fennec) support, the ability to synchronize more Firefox preferences, bookmark backup that initiates before the first sync to prevent data loss, and major interface and performance improvements. Account creation should be easier, with a revamped "wizard," and the changelog for the beta indicates that many … Read more

In late 2008, Firefox-maker Mozilla hatched a brand-new add-on from its Labs division. Known as Weave Sync, the extension, like the popular Xmarks (known then as Foxmarks), would synchronize open browser tabs, bookmarks, history, and preferences across all Firefox browsers--including mobile versions like Firefox for Nokia's Maemo platform and in-development versions for other mobile platforms.

Since then, the beta version of Weave Sync has received a stream of updates. The latest version gets a new identity, Firefox Sync. The product name change indicates that although the syncing add-on remains in beta, Mozilla's engineers think that its tool is … Read more

Google has proclaimed that the conventional PC will become "irrelevant" within the next three years, and it insists that it puts mobile first in development.

That's a bold statement indicating just how much Google is betting on the mobile Web. But it's also an indication of just how critical synchronization technology is going to become--especially syncing to an open Web.

Traditionally, sync has been that thing you do between your desktop and your one mobile device to ensure that calendars, address books, and even browser bookmarks are current between the two islands of computing. But in … Read more

There are several excellent bookmark-syncing extensions for Firefox, but Weave is the first major effort designed by Mozilla. The newest version of Weave is out of beta and supports more than just bookmark sync. It also supports syncing open tabs, history, passwords, preferences, and Firefox 3's advanced Location Bar data.

The add-on lives in your tools menu, in your Options menu, and in a Status Bar icon. From clicking on any of them, you can check your syncing log, create a user account and password, and toggle sync settings. The default is to sync all, but choosing the customization … Read more

There are several excellent bookmark-syncing extensions for Firefox, but Weave is the first one designed by Mozilla. As you might expect from the company that produces Firefox itself, the appeal of Weave is that it synchronizes more than just bookmarks, and also supports syncing open tabs, history, passwords, preferences, and Firefox 3's advanced Location Bar data.

The add-on lives in your Tools menu and in your Options menu. From there you can check your syncing log, create a user account and password, and toggle sync settings. The default is to sync all. But in practice, Weave has had a … Read more

We've been hearing about Mozilla's Weave Sync add-on for Firefox (download) for some time. The Weave extension is Mozilla's in-house effort to store your bookmarks, tabs, history, passwords, and preferences on Mozilla's server--the end goal being to snap open Firefox on any computer (or even mobile phone) and get to your content without having to configure your settings or open pages anew.

Now that Mozilla has officially released version 1.0 of Weave Sync, we jumped right up to test it out on the desktop. The verdict? We wouldn't say it stinks, but Weave doesn'… Read more

Mozilla won't make a 2009 deadline for releasing Firefox 3.6 and is giving itself more time to complete a major update, version 4.0.

The organization behind the open-source Web browser had predicted a final release of Firefox 3.6 in December 2009, but the Mozilla Web site now includes "ship Firefox 3.6" as a goal for the first quarter of 2010.

In addition, Firefox 4.0, which had been due in 2010, now is "aimed at late 2010 or early 2011," with a beta due in the summer of 2010, according to Mozilla.

Schedule delays are common in the software world, but browser development is furious these days with the arrival of Google's Chrome into the market, Apple helping to expand the frontiers of what the browser can do, Opera trying to dramatically speed up JavaScript execution and display performance, and Microsoft getting more ambitious again with Internet Explorer. "We've always been more quality-driven than time-driven, but we understand timing in the market matters to our users and our competitiveness," said Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, in an October interview. … Read more

Mozilla's homegrown tool for synchronizing Firefox across computers and devices graduates to beta and introduces incremental syncing and a more streamlined, less obtrusive experience. Mozilla Weave 1.0 beta 1 looks and feels far more polished than its predecessors.

It does away with the "about:weave" access to the add-on's configuration pane, better handles Firefox preference integration when syncing for the first time, adds an automatic on-demand sync for when changes are detected and should more comprehensively sync history. This first beta also fixes a problem that the previous Weave v0.8 had when connecting via … Read more

The key feature in Mozilla's Weave add-on for Firefox is the ability to synchronize tabs, bookmarks, history, and other browser-sourced, data-rich fields. The latest update, Weave version 0.7, gives a big overhaul to the synchronization component, redoing the setup and configuration interface, and adding incremental download support.

Compared to previous versions, the installation process on your first computer has been greatly streamlined, though the security questions asked remain the same. The wizard that guides you through the process has been redone to present the information through a tab-specific black overlay.

According to Mozilla, the incremental download support will … Read more