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Google Releases Google Browser Sync Extension
Pneuma ROCKS writes "Google has just released the Google Browser Sync extension for Firefox. This extension allows you to save your bookmarks, history and passwords on Google servers, effectively giving you a 'roaming profile,' which you can sync on any computer running Firefox (and the extension, of course)."
Actually it tells you right here in the FAQ.
Google has just released the Google Browser Sync extension for Firefox. This extension allows you to save your bookmarks, history and passwords on Google servers, effectively giving you a 'roaming profile,' which you can sync on any computer running Firefox (and the extension, of course).
For those who are loathe to continue shovelling their personal info at Google ...
Then, from any computer:
If the system you are on doesn't have wget, you can just visit the URL and use the links in the browser or save the file to your profile on the machine. If you don't want it so easily accessible on the 'net, then you can use a different file name or put it in some randomly named directory.
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/f
I suggest you RTFA before posting. The data is encrypted, and cannot be decrypted without your PIN.
For those who are worried about giving their browsing history and passwords to Google (or anyone for that matter), you can still reap the benefits of synchronized bookmarks with another Firefox extension: Foxmarks.
Foxmarks is basically the same thing, but just for bookmarks (and not on Google's servers). It's great for keeping bookmarks across multiple machines, and also really useful for those who dual (or triple) boot a single machine. My triple-boot MacBook keeps all its bookmarks in sync with Foxmarks!
Like Digital Freedoms? Then donate to EFF before they're gone.
The data is encrypted before being sent to Google's servers. Nice knee-jerk reaction though.
Google making firefox extensions? Maybe I'm retarded, but this is the first I've seen.
Maybe I'm retarded, but that didn't seem sarcastic to me, so here are some other firefox extensions from google. The "beta" (yeah, google loves the beta) version of google toolbar for firefox was released on July 7th, 2005.
Which I actually did. Currently, I'm storing cookies, passwords, bookmarks and "tabs and windows saving". Bookmarks save works great time, solving conflicts in an elegant fashion: I installed it first at my work's PC (fewer bookmarks) and then at home. I was afraid it would mangle my home collection, but fortunately it merged then folder-by-folder and inside folders. Tabs and windows saving are great too (and yes, I know Opera had this since day zero): it asks you which tabs you want to reload (which is convenient if some of the older tabs were loaded with p0rn).
Great plugin, IMO. A must have, at least for me.
I, for one, welcome our new indexing, synchonizing, mailing, chatting, reading, spreedsheeting and advertising robot overlords!
I tried it on my Windows PC (Firefox 1.5). All of a sudden the menus and URL bar would not work properly. I type in a URL and it takes me to my homepage... I wanted to synch with my Mac mini, and now that machine is locked up where I can't hardly use the mouse, and I can't even close down Firefox! Very weird stuff.
Finally it would not synch anything for me. It kept giving me different errors related to how I have too much data, or to "try again later". Maybe their servers are being hit hard now.
I am uninstalling this stuff, maybe some time in the future I will reinstall when they have fixed the problems...
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/index.html
- Google Toolbar
- Google Browser Sync (how relevant.....)
- Blooger Comments
- Send to Phone
They also used to have:- Google Safe Browsing
- Google Suggest
But they are both incorporated into Google Toolbar now.Actually, I'm pretty sure there's both an encrypted an unecrypted version. Once actually inside G-Mail both https:/// and http:/// will work -- and there is a difference; when they first released the messaging inside the webmail page it only worked in the unsecure page.
What's all this excitement about? There are already about half a dozen different Firefox extensions in existence that allows you to sync bookmarks. If you ask me I'd tell you to go check out the bookmarks extensions
I'm not so confident - again I trust Google however they do appear to have left themselves with some room for maneuver. I would simply ask whether you would be as confident if Google were taken over by a less scrupilous competitor in 3 months time. - If you read the associated T&C's you will find:l . By using the Extensions, you acknowledge and agree that Google may access, preserve, and disclose information regarding your use of the services if required to do so by law or under other conditions set forth in the Google Privacy Policy http://www.google.com/privacy.html. Google will not be responsible or liable for the exercise or non- exercise of its rights under the Terms of Service.
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3. GOOGLE PRIVACY POLICY
For information about our data protection practices and the data that may be available to Google when you use the Firefox Extensions, please see the Google Privacy Policy at http://www.google.com/privacy.html and the Firefox Extensions Privacy Notices at http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/agreement.htm
--
Emphasis mine... So Im sure you could read into that a little - however as I said I do trust Google, however the usual issues apply, and Google may well be leaving themselves access (for the reasons above..). Then from the linked privacy policy:
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Uses
* We may use personal information to provide the services you've requested, including services that display customized content and advertising.
* We may also use personal information for auditing, research and analysis to operate and improve Google technologies and services.
* We may share aggregated non-personal information with third parties outside of Google.
* When we use third parties to assist us in processing your personal information, we require that they comply with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
* We may also share information with third parties in limited circumstances, including when complying with legal process, preventing fraud or imminent harm, and ensuring the security of our network and services.
* Google processes personal information on our servers in the United States of America and in other countries. In some cases, we process personal information on a server outside your own country.
* Read more in the full privacy policy.
--
Again emphasis mine, IANAL but that does appear to broaden the scope wouldn't you say? I am not suggesting Google would use this data for their own benefit but it appears they could, up to and including passing it on to a third party.
If you look at the extension, you will see you can choose to encrypt any/all of what it can sync.
Giving Google my passwords and browser history? Who knows what evil they could do with them?
Your secret is already out. We *all* know that you read slashdot.
"What does it mean when I see a warning message that tells me "you logged in on a different machine"?
Currently, Google Browser Sync only allows you to be logged in to one browser at a time"
The people would mostly likely use this proably have Firefox on 2 to 3 machines and it is certainly not uncommon to A) leave your computer running with a browser window open and then get on another machine running firefox B) be on firefox on say a laptop while your wife/girlfriend etc is on your main machine(and no they shouldn't all have to have seperate accounts).
I see they are "working" on having multiple accounts but personally this simply won't work for me and many others until then. On the positive side it's nice to have Google developing for Firefox and if the encryption is sound this sounds like a nice feature that maybe one day will become standard on Firefox.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Try Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer. At first it appears to only work with their servers, but if you look at the advanced settings it allows you to specify your own ftp server. I'm not sure if it encrypts it, but you could get a reasonable level of security by storing it in a non-web-accesible ftp folder, and there might be a setting to use secure ftp or https; I forget (I uninstalled it because I realized I didn't really need it).
MS-DOS: Most Severe Denial of Service
Free Online Backup
Do they store the PIN on their systems? Of course they do. Therefore they can unencrypt your info any time they want.
... and on to an actual comment about the extension itself.
On my Mac, this extension was rather problematic. It installed just fine, and syncs with Firefox on my Linux box just fine. But when I launch subsequent sessions of Firefox on my Mac, I get one window telling me it's connecting to the Google server - and it overlays (and 95% of the time prevents interaction with) the window that pops up asking for my master password (for FF's saved passwords feature). Can't type my master password, can't get past this point.
In order to actually run Firefox again, I had to manually remove the extension from my profile.
I'm used to Google's "betas" working quite smoothly - it's unusual to run into one with a big old flaw like this one.
#DeleteChrome
Its not really clear about how much of your information is encryped. Your passwords yes, but your browsing history? Your bookmarks?
I've just downloaded and installed it. It automatically encrypts your cookies and passwords (it doesn't let you change this setting), and gives you the option of encrypting history, bookmarks, and tabs and windows if you choose to synchronize them. Additionally, it's all optional.
And if you were really security-conscious, you could tell it to not synchronize anything at all.
Assuming it keeps working (it has so far), I really like it. It makes keeping bookmarks actually worthwhile.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
From the FAQ (emphasis added by me):
What's the point of encrypting my information?
By encrypting your information, it will be transmitted to and stored on Google's servers in a format that is nearly impossible to interpret without the PIN. That means that without the PIN, no one, not even Google, will be able to read your data
You know that all that information about bookmarks and favourites will be of use to marketers.
From TFFAQ "That means that without the PIN, no one, not even Google, will be able to read your data"
In other words, no Google won't use your "bookmarks *and* favourites" (that's the same thing IIRC) for marketing since they won't be able to read them.
You just got troll'd!
Hrmph.
I installed the extension in Firefox v1.5.0.4 on my 15" MacBook Pro running Mac OSX v10.4.6 (fully patched). No go when I try and restart Firefox. The initial startup the extension came up I typed in the configuration information then when it was sending the settings to Google, it just sat there until I did a OpenApple-Q to quit Firefox.
I had to bring Firefox up in safe mode (run "/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -safe-mode") then remove the extension from the Help Menu->Extensions window. I'll give it another shot here in a bit.