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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.

17 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Foxmarks is great by JoelMeow · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think it's a little mean to refer to Foxmarks as a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension." I've been using it since before Google's browser sync existed, and I never bothered to try out Google's extension because Foxmarks worked perfectly. If you need a replacement, I would recommend checking them out.

    1. Re:Foxmarks is great by Niten · · Score: 4, Informative

      I think it's a little mean to refer to Foxmarks as a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension."

      Yeah, that comment reeks of spite and ignorance. It also glosses over the privacy issues that kept many from using Google Browser Sync to begin with, but which aren't an issue with Foxmarks.

      And anyway, I'm much more willing to trust Foxmarks to store my private data than I am Google -- unlike Google, Foxmarks is not one of the world's fastest-growing advertising companies; and unlike Google, Foxmarks is founded by Mitch Kapor, one of the co-founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Better still, the Foxmarks extension allows you to use your own server for synchronization, if you're so paranoid that you don't even trust your data in the hands of an EFF founder.

      If anything can be called a "poorly maintained 3rd party extension" here, it would have to be Google Browser Sync -- which, I suppose, is why it has fallen out of favor.

    2. 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.

      --
      E pluribus unum
  2. Re:Alternatives? by seriv · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look into foxmarks (assuming you use firefox). It works decently well, and it has firefox 3 support. I never switched to Google's thing, because foxmarks seemed better.

  3. 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?

    --
    "Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
  4. 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

    --
    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?

      --
      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.

  5. Mozilla Weave is working great for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://labs.mozilla.com/featured-projects/#weave

    Syncs lots of things, including bookmarks.

  6. Mozilla Weave by beezly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mozilla Weave does similar stuff... http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/introducing-weave/

    I've been using it for a while and it's pretty good, even though it's still under lots of development.

  7. Obligatory conspiracy theory by bokmann · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In a manager's office at Google -

    Employee: "You know boss, we really should devote some time to updating the Browser Sync tool to work with Firefox 3..."

    Manager: "I have been meaning to talk to you about that... You see, we have been thinking about it, and there really isn't a way to make ad revenue from that tool. While it is cool and useful and all, I don't think people would be happy with ad links showing up randomly in their bookmark menus."

    Employee: "Um, yeah... I agree with that. I didn't reslize..."

    Manager: "The ad revenue thing? Yeah... well something has to pay for that 20% self-directed time since ad revenues are down. The good news is we think that the Google Toolbar can replace it, and we have a plan for monetizing that."

    Employee: "Well, can I work on the FF3 upgrade in my 20% self-directed time and open source the tool?"

    Manager: "We thought about that too - first, the Google Toolbar doesn't need the competition. Second, we can't release the code in the shape its in... people would throw our 'do no evil' slogan back at us and slashdot would be all a-titter. It would take as much to clean it up as it would just to get it to work with FF3, so we think it is at its end-of-life."

    Employee: "um... o..k... thanks."

  8. Re:Fear not... by schon · · Score: 4, Funny

    the newly released Opera 9.5 has introduced a sync'ing capability. Cool! But I looked at your link, and there's no mention of a Firefox extension.

    Could you provide a better link for it?
  9. Great... which project is next? by merreborn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hate to sound a bit alarmist here, but which project can we expect to see go next?

    I'm just that more hesitant to use google products, if they're prone to axing them without warning.

  10. Re:Fear not... by Tangent128 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure thing!

    In Firefox, go to http://link.opera.com/

  11. Re:Fear not... by Ambush+Commander · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have mod points, but I have to point out here that Opera Sync currently only works with your bookmarks and your speed dial, making it Opera's built-in equivalent of Foxmarks (which I myself have been using happily). It is no Google Browser Sync replacement.

  12. Re:This makes me cry... by i.of.the.storm · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mozilla is actually working on an extension called Weave that essentially does everything it sounds like GBS did. At least, I know it syncs bookmarks, history, and cookies, and other things.

    --
    All your base are belong to Wii.
  13. Re:Alternatives? by Christophotron · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Mozilla Weave is doing this. I'm not sure of when details will be released on the server software, but I believe that is the idea: that if you want to, you can run your own server and point the extension at it. This sounds awesome, as I would be able to continue using Weave while Mozilla are screwing around with their servers during the development process. I can't tell you how many times Weave has refused to sync due to some "server lock error" and other crap like that. I even tried clearing out the server data and resetting the locks using the debug menu provided. Weave just has a lot of major development issues that need to be worked out, but when it actually works, it works pretty well. Having some level of control over my own data storage is definitely a step in the right direction, and I didn't even know they were planning this. Weave may turn out to be better than GBS after all!

    On another note, they also NEED to allow us to change the synchronization interval. Auto-syncing only upon closing firefox is a horrible idea. What happens when Firefox crashes (a common occurence even with release versions, unfortunately). I'd sync every hour, if not every five minutes. Sure, that may adversely affect mozilla's servers, but my own server would be able to handle my needs just fine.