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Mozilla Messaging Unveils Raindrop

Posted by timothy on from the but-these-are-friendly-buzzwords dept.

mhammond writes "Mozilla Messaging has just unveiled a Mozilla Labs project, Raindrop, an experiment with Open Messaging on the Open Web. Raindrop uses couchdb as a storage engine and to serve the HTML/CSS/Javascript application itself, while the back-end is primarily written in Python. Although it is early days yet, the concept that you own your data may be what sets this apart from Google Wave."

23 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Google Wave by matt4077 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wave is a protocol. It's just the first implementation that is google's. Build your own server and you own everything.

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    Fleur de Sel
    1. Re:Google Wave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, as stated on the Google Wave video (the first one) it's a platform, a protocol and a product /pedant

      XD

    2. Re:Google Wave by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can still set up your own server though, and retain total control.

      The creators went into a significant explanation of how you can federate your server to the outside world, or leave them entirely internal. The protocol is the really significant part, and the product is more like an expression of the protocol than the end-all-be-all implementation of it.

    3. Re:Google Wave by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 2, Funny

      No. It is a desert topping AND a floor wax!

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    4. Re:Google Wave by Eil · · Score: 3, Informative

      After watching the video linked to in TFA, I can't see how this is anything at all like Google Wave. All they apparently share in common is that they both have something to do with communication and the web.

      I have yet to actually try it out, but to me, Raindrop looks like what would happen if you wrote an ordinary web email client and added support for twitter and facebook. I don't see why you couldn't achieve the same thing on the desktop with a few Thunderbird extensions.

    5. Re:Google Wave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not to get too "640k is all anyone needs" here, but having used Wave now for about a week or two, the current client doesn't seem to be much more than a multi-user version of Omni Outliner (with less functionality).

      Yeah, you could write new clients that make it work like twitter or IM or email. But those things already exist and work just fine. I don't see it as a very useful way to real-time collaborate on a document (compared with other, better ways- whether google docs or wikis...) So I guess I'm not sure what the hype is about exactly. Does google know what Wave is supposed to be, or is it just putting it out there and hoping it grows into something?

  2. I hope that will be a non browser client by pembo13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As in a desktop client written specifically to utilize this.

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    "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    1. Re:I hope that will be a non browser client by value_added · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The vast majority of people with a computer tend to live in their browser's window. And they like it!

      By contrast, in the presentation videos for Google's Wave, the ncurses interface (or what seemed like one) garnered the loudest applause. A narrow audience or limited subset of users? Perhaps, but I expect there's enough of us who find using a web browser for anything other than browsing the web inefficient, if not abhorent.

      Still, the march to develop new "messaging technologies" is interesting, especially with respect to certain things like collaboration. Personally, I don't even think web or browser-based email works (at least for anyone other than trivial or casual use), so I'm happy to sit things out and watch on the sidelines. Who knows. Maybe they're onto something.

    2. Re:I hope that will be a non browser client by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If it's more convenient to shoehorn every activity into a single monolithic application than "switch between applications," then your desktop environment is built wrong.

    3. Re:I hope that will be a non browser client by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If it's more convenient to shoehorn every activity into a single monolithic application than "switch between applications," then your desktop environment is built wrong.

      That stops being true if there is a lot of overlap between those apps.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    4. Re:I hope that will be a non browser client by buchner.johannes · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe similar to this persona editor project. Libraries that are able to tap into proprietary websites (social networks, etc.) to escape from vendor lock-in would be great.

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      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    5. Re:I hope that will be a non browser client by smallfries · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sounds cool. I'm seeing some kind of voice interface to get around the lack of writing. To be honest it would be most useful as some sort of mobile platform, rather than desktop software. Then I could easily carry this voice communication around, and hope that it became pervasive enough that all of my friends did too. Although the email paradigm of bouncing messages off of each other works well it would be really good to have a real-time interface for voice between these mobile devices.

      Perhaps a speaker, microphone and some buttons to select who I want to talk to. You know this could be really huge.

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  3. Finish Thunderbird first? by mR.bRiGhTsId3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I the only one who wishes they would hurry up and finish TB 3, and integrate that will all the Web 2 goodness, instead of these random projects?

    1. Re:Finish Thunderbird first? by ChaosDiscord · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm with you! How dare these people that I don't pay, who give away their creations, source included, not focus on the specific tasks I care about? What is with these layout volunteers working on whatever happens to tickle their fancy? Why aren't the paid employees all focusing on one particular project, adding manpower to a slow software project is guaranteed to make it faster! The internets are serious business, and I don't have time for this!

      I saw we get together and refuse to pay another dollar for any Mozilla products until they comply with our demands!

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      Search 2010 Gen Con events
    2. Re:Finish Thunderbird first? by mR.bRiGhTsId3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You do realize that Mozilla Messaging was created specifically as a steward for Thunderbird because it wasn't getting the love it deserved from the Mozilla Foundation right?

    3. Re:Finish Thunderbird first? by Zarel · · Score: 3, Informative

      From TFA:

      Today we’re introducing Raindrop, an exploration in messaging innovation being led by the team responsible for Thunderbird

      So he'd be right to assume so. ;)

      --
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    4. Re:Finish Thunderbird first? by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well I can't wait for TB 3 to be finished soon enough. So far TB 3 doesn't work with the Lightning Calendar add-in so I am stuck with TB 2.X for that.

      I switched from Outlook to Thunderbird and I want to have email and calendar options in the same program. Maybe Raindrop can do that, but until it does finish TB 3 for those of us without Wave servers before you finish Raindrop.

      In order to update my Timex Data Link watch I have to copy data from Thunderbird to Outlook and then sync up with Outlook using the Timex Data Link software. But I am going to get rid of my Data Link watch as it is old and nothing replaced it. I am going with a solar powered digital watch. I hope to find something that can store my contact and calendar like the Data Link did, but I like the idea of wearable data.

      My Cell phone is a TracFone, and won't do data transfers, I cannot afford a BlackBerry, Smartphone, or iPhone, and I can barely afford a PDA and since it isn't wearable I can lose it easily as I lost many others.

      Thunderbird needs to be finished and then syncing up with other calendar applications and servers before the team moves on to finish Raindrop, because so far Thunderbird isn't that good a competitor to Outlook yet.

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    5. Re:Finish Thunderbird first? by Have+Brain+Will+Rent · · Score: 2, Insightful

      the world is moving to webmail

      Some of the world may be moving to web based email but not everybody. I'm certainly not - I want my email on my machine where I can control it, especially since much of it is confidential in nature. If I want off-site access I'll tunnel.

      --
      The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
    6. Re:Finish Thunderbird first? by buchner.johannes · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Use KOrganizer (Kalendar+KMail). It's great.

      More frontends (and editors) for remind would be nice too ...

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  4. TFS is ludicrous by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Although it is early days yet, the concept that you own your data may be what sets this apart from Google Wave.

    The centerpiece of Wave is a server-to-server federation protocol that lets anyone control their own data that can be made accessible through Wave. So, with all the things that might set Mozilla's product apart from Wave, "the concept that you own your data" is not one of them.

  5. Re:Yo Dawg... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yo dawg. I heard you liked comments so I put a comment to your comment

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  6. I read TFA by Grimnir512 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I read TFA over a few times and I'm not so sure what this is or how it works. It seems to be some sort of email/twitter/facebook aggregator. Have I understood this correctly?

  7. Meta by lastomega7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like with the current trend of new 'universal aggregators' we'll soon need an aggregator aggregator. I think they planned for this though, with possible titles such as 'mozilla monsoon' and 'google tsunami.'