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Google Browser Sync To Be Discontinued

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the going-gently-into-that-good-night dept.

Dude With An Afro writes "What could have been a great Google project is now history. For those who never used it, Google Browser Sync was a Firefox extension that synchronized your bookmarks, web history, browser sessions and passwords across multiple computers by temporarily saving them to Google's servers. According to the Google Browser Sync team: 'It was a tough call, but we decided to phase out support for Browser Sync. Since the team has moved on to other projects that are keeping them busy, we don't have time to update the extension to work with Firefox 3 or to continue to maintain it.' For all of those who fell in love with Google's Browser Sync, our only hope now is to resort to poorly maintained 3rd party extensions without Google's blessing." While it was undoubtedly a useful utility, the argument can also be made that it wasn't the most secure extension in the world, what with having your personal data kept on Google's servers and shot around the internet.

9 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Third party extensions by langelgjm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For all of those who fell in love with Google's Browser Sync, our only hope now is to resort to poorly maintained 3rd party extensions without Google's blessing.

    Um, wasn't Google browser sync also a third party extension?

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    "Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
  2. So why not open source it? by molo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google should know better. Abandonware? Open source it! Then if people care they can upgrade it for FF3.

    -molo

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    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
    1. Re:So why not open source it? by BPPG · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How good is your server?

      And how do we know we can trust you with our bookmarks?

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      What's the value of information that you don't know?
    2. Re:So why not open source it? by positive · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Presumably, one of the first things open source developers would do would be to uncouple the extension from Google's servers. Seems that substituting in as the data store would work pretty well.

    3. Re:So why not open source it? by houghi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If they opensource it, you can either put it on your own server or get a multitude of servers to pick from where YOU decide if you trust them on not and if you think they are fast enough.
      Providers could offer it to their customers.
      Companies could put it on their own servers for their employees.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  3. Strange that there are no good solutions by smartin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've been using browsersync since it came out and it worked reasonably well except for the periodic trashing or losing of my bookmarks. It just seems really strange to me that there is not a good solution in this space as most people user multiple machines between home and work.

    Is this because its a hard problem or is it because there is no opportunity to make money from it?

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    The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
  4. Check out bookmarks on the Google toolbar by LaughingCoder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google toolbar has a bookmarks button that is a nice and easy way to make your bookmarks available wherever you browse (even across browsers).

    As to the note in the OP about Google having all our personal data on their servers ... I laughed out loud when I read that. S/he is living in some parallel universe if s/he thinks Google doesn't have plenty of information about our browsing history or tendencies. Do you use Gmail? Do you use Google to search? Do you use the Google toolbar? Adding my bookmarks to the mix doesn't seem to make my "personal data" any less secure.

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    The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
  5. Re:So just go back to the "old school" solution... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At least in FireFox, your bookmarks just exist as a plain ol' HTML file in your profile directory. You don't need any special tools to sync that across multiple machines, you just copy it between machines (or better, use FireFox Portable off a thumbdrive).

    But without a syncing mechanism, you have to be meticulous about making sure you always to it. What if you add 20 bookmarks at home and a different 20 at work between copies? You'd have to decide which 20 was more important so that you can overwrite the others.

    I'm kind of opposed to native Firefox solutions on general principals, though. That doesn't work so well if you also want to use your bookmarks from IE at the office and Safari on your iPhone (disclaimer: I have neither - work with me here). Sites like del.icio.us are a much better idea, in my opinion, although I don't like the idea of giving up control over your own data.

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    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  6. Re:Foxmarks is great by samkass · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Indeed, Google Browser Sync is itself a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension" at this point, so I don't know why that distinction was made between GBS and the other plug-ins that do the same thing.

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    E pluribus unum